The Grand Tour of Oklahoma
by cheri1
Summary: 10/Rose  Bored and looking for adventure, the Doctor and Rose decide to backpack all over Oklahoma and find some fun and adventure on the way. FINISHED.
1. Prologue

A/N: I'm originally from Indiana but at the moment I'm living in Oklahoma City and…the city has its good and bad points, that's for sure. I've had some quirky experiences though and I got the idea to take things I've experiences or people I've met or observed and let the Doctor and Rose experience the madness firsthand. So, most of the things that happen in this fic will be from my own experience of living in this city and traveling to various places throughout Oklahoma and it'll be partly crack and partly serious. I mean no disrespect to anyone especially any okies who may be reading this, just tormenting our dynamic duo for shits and giggles and letting them experience the good and the bad of…Oklahoma (ominous music).

Prologue

"So…what do you want to do now?" the Doctor asked Rose as they sailed through the vortex.

"Dunno," Rose replied, leaning on the console. "What do you wanna do?"

"Me? I've done everything, that's why I'm asking you," the Doctor said. "Come on, Tyler, give me some ideas. Think, ya daft woman!" he said in a Scottish accent.

"Um...okay, how about...hiking."

"Okay, gotta be a bit more specific than that," the Doctor said.

"Um…well, just put on a backpack and go hiking," Rose said.

"Yes, but where? Ideas, gotta have ideas."

"Well…to be honest, I'd like to go to America, haven't been before," Rose said.

"Okey-dokey, America, narrows it down a bit. Where in America?" the Doctor said.

"Um…"

Rose was thinking when suddenly she ran out of the room. She came back in holding a large atlas. The Doctor watched while she opened it to a map of the US.

"I'll just do what you would do," she said.

She held a hand over her eyes, lifted her hand up and jabbed a finger at somewhere on the map. The Doctor looked where her finger was pointing.

"You hit Oklahoma," he said to her.

Rose took her hand away from her eyes.

"Fine, Oklahoma then," Rose said.

"Okay, where in Oklahoma? Are you going to turn to the map of Oklahoma and jab a finger at it now?" the Doctor said.

"Well, I…um…"

"Yes?" the Doctor said when she trailed off.

"I was thinking be daft and hike all over the state but…the TARDIS…"

"Easy peasy, I have a remote control that can call the TARDIS to us wherever we are."

"You do? Wait, why haven't you used this remote control whenever we were in trouble and needed an escape?" Rose said.

"Because it wouldn't be much fun if we never had to think our way out of a situation, would it?"

"I…guess…" Rose said, feeling like dropping the TARDIS on his head for never telling her this before.

"But…hiking all over the state sounds intriguing. I haven't visited Oklahoma except for a few times and I would love to see it up close without the TARDIS and without a car. So…backpack it across Oklahoma and experience the wind as it comes whipping down the plain?"

"Yeah," Rose said, getting excited.

The Doctor smiled, seeing her excitement which in turn amped up his excitement. After 902 years, he preferred to let the companions determine most of the destinations since he had pretty much seen and done it all.

"So, I suggest, start in the capital city, see what we can see and then work our way to other places, by any means necessary and when we've had our fill of the Sooner State, we call the TARDIS to us and go on to the next adventure. Sounds good?"

"Sounds great," Rose said.

"Okay, since we're being random, I'll just let the TARDIS pick a random day and year and we'll see what comes up," the Doctor said as he hurried to the monitor.

Rose zoomed around the console and came to his side, watching while he worked the controls with boyish enthusiasm. He finished inputting the destination and chose random day and year and grinned when the TARDIS fired up and turned around in the vortex.

"Oklahoma, here we come!" the Doctor said as they hung on.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

Before they headed out, the Doctor and Rose were given a couple of large forest green hiker's backpacks that the TARDIS filled with essentials. Rose gave him a dubious look when the TARDIS made them materialize out of thin air.

"So we're just gonna trust a machine that she knows what we'll need?" Rose said.

"I'm sure she put the essentials in here," the Doctor said, shrugging his on. "Besides, we can find what we need on the way if she didn't. We're both resourceful people. Now…"

The Doctor walked to his console and checked it.

"Today is 30th July, 2011 and outside the door is Oklahoma City. Ready for an adventure?"

"Ready when you are," Rose said, shrugging on her backpack.

They walked to the door, opened it and they walked out onto the edge of a field by a road. The sun was just beginning to come up, not even showing itself yet, only the slightest yellow in the distance. There was a city bus passing by them and a few cars but the surrounded area looked run down and trashy. Rose looked diagonally across the street and saw a large patio behind a building. The patio had several picnic tables on it with a black iron fence around it. There were people going in and out of it. Rose tugged on the Doctor's jacket sleeve and pointed to it.

"What's going on over there?" she asked.

"Only one way to find out," the Doctor said, closing the TARDIS door.

He and Rose ran across the street and then ran across the street to their right to get to the side the building was on. As they neared it, they saw two tables at the front of the patio. Some people were lined up at them, getting something to drink at one and receiving a small brown sack at the other. At the back was another line that was waiting to go through a black iron gate into a building next door. When they walked up to it, Rose noticed that some of the people looked haggard with worn and dirty clothing and a few of them looked drunk. They walked up a brick walkway and through a black iron gate onto the patio. They turned and walked over to the tables. There was a large coffee urn on one with Styrofoam cups, sugar and creamer and on the other table a man was passing sacks to people from a dented blue plastic bin. The Doctor glanced at Rose and they walked over to the table with the bin on it.

"Good morning," a man said with a smile as he handed them each a sack.

The Doctor and Rose thanked them and peeked inside. The Doctor pulled out a sandwich wrapped in a plastic sandwich bag and examined it while they got in the other queue.

"Peanut butter sandwich," he said to Rose.

"Yeah, got one as well and a bottled water and bag of pretzels and a tin of mixed fruit and a tin of vienna sausages and a plastic spoon. Doctor, I think this is for homeless and poor people," she said softly. "Notice how the people around us look?"

The Doctor looked around at the haggard people. He heard someone rambling on about random things and saw a man wearing a plastic Viking helmet sitting at one of the picnic tables going on and on about nothing in particular while the people around him ate their food and talked.

"See, I think these are tramps," Rose whispered to him.

"Well, in a way so are we at the moment since we're going without the TARDIS," the Doctor whispered back.

"Good morning, would you like some coffee?"

The Doctor turned his attention to a young blonde woman who was standing behind the table with the urn on it. He nodded and he and Rose took a Styrofoam cup and got some coffee.

"Haven't seen you here before," the lady said to the Doctor while he put some sugar in his coffee.

"Yes, we're new, just got into town," the Doctor said to her.

"Are you staying at the City Rescue Mission?" the lady said.

"Uh…no, we're staying out in the open," the Doctor said.

"Oh," the lady said, frowning. "You know there are missions around if you need them."

"Yes, but we prefer the outdoors," the Doctor said.

The lady nodded and the Doctor pointed to the queue at the back.

"What's over there?" he said to the lady.

"Free clothes, get in line and get some," the lady said.

The Doctor glanced at Rose and shrugged as he walked back to the queue. Rose followed him, took a sip of the coffee and made a face.

"Gah, this tastes like shite," Rose whispered as she caught up to the Doctor.

The Doctor took a sip, made a face and he and Rose looked at each other before they both set their cups down on the nearest picnic table.

They got in the queue together and a man spied Rose and beckoned to her.

"Women go on in," he said to Rose.

"What? That's not fair," the Doctor teased as Rose stuck her tongue out and walked ahead of him and the three other men in the queue.

She stepped down into another small patio that was bordered on one side by the building containing the clothes and another building across from it. She was about to go in the building when the man stopped her.

"No backpacks, leave them out here," he said, pointing to the other building. "We'll keep an eye on them."

Rose nodded, shrugged off her backpack and set it down against the wall of the other building. Then she went in and went down a wooden ramp into a rectangular concrete building. The inside of the building had several clothes racks filled with clothing along the sides and in front of her. Off to her right were metal racks that had new and used blankets and new and used backpacks and purses. In front of that was a wooden picnic table that had several shoeboxes sitting on them. Rose walked over to those and saw various toiletry items in each one. She then walked over to the metal rack and examined the blankets. While she was looking she heard one of the staff yell out that they were allowed to take two shirts and one pair of pants. Rose looked through the blankets, not intending to take any when one caught her eye. It was a pink fleece blanket with Scooby Doo's head all over it. Grinning, she picked it up and examined it. It was brand new and so cute so she decided to take it. She rolled it up, put it under her arm and walked over to another rack further down the wall that had t-shirts on hangers. She casually looked through them, noticing that some were a bit worn and some shirts were new. She pulled out a hangar and looked at a pink t-shirt with a colorful butterfly on it. While she examined it, the man kept telling everyone they were only allowed two shirts and one pair of pants.

"Boo!"

Rose jumped when the Doctor came up behind her and grabbed her sides. He chuckled and came up beside her. He noticed the blanket under her arm and pulled it out.

"Scooby doo?" he said, looking at it.

"Yeah, problem with that?" Rose said.

"You're keeping this?"

"Yeah, like I said, problem with that? I like Scooby Doo," Rose said.

"Yes, but…what if a homeless person wants it?"

"Sorry, got to it first," Rose said with a shrug.

"Rose, how could you? Taking Scooby Doo away from the needy. Doo hog!" he said while Rose giggled and snatched the blanket back from him.

"Doo hog!" the Doctor said while Rose gave him a pointed look, rolled it back up and put it under her arm.

"Hello, sir, men's clothes are over there," a man said, coming up to the Doctor and pointing across the room.

"Don't really need any, I'm just here with the shop-a-holic," the Doctor said, pointing at Rose. "Can't resist clothes, bless."

"Shut up," Rose said.

The man chuckled and extended his hand.

"Name's Bob," he said.

"I'm the Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

The Doctor was about to say something when Rose looked back at Bob.

"His name's John," she said.

"Ah, nice to meet you, John, and you are…" he said to Rose.

"Rose," Rose said, shaking his hand.

"England? You have English accents," Bob said.

"Yeah, London, we're here in America traveling," Rose said.

"Oh, well, welcome to America and be careful out there," Bob said. "Take what you need but only two shirts and one pair of pants please."

The Doctor nodded and Bob patted him on the shoulder and walked away. He looked at Rose.

"My name is not John," he said.

"Doctor, I get tired of introducing you to people and having them say, Doctor Who? You use John Smith as an alias, yeah? So use it!"

"What if I don't want to? What if I like Doctor, huh, huh, huh?" he said while Rose giggled. "What if I start introducing you as Doo Hog the blanket thief, huh, huh, huh?"

"Oh, belt up and go get a blanket," Rose said, waving her hand towards the rack.

"Doo Hog, Doo Hog, depriving the homeless of a dog," the Doctor chanted as he wandered over to the rack.

Rose flipped him the vees and put the shirt back on rack. She turned to her right and looked at a rack filled with used blue jeans and slacks. She found a pair in her size and unfolded them, examining them. They were slightly worn but in good condition. She put them against her body, judging if they would fit or not.

"Now the Doo Hog is pinching the blue jeans."

Rose sighed when the Doctor sniggered as he put his head on her shoulder.

"It was your idea to come in here, git," Rose said to him.

"To look, not to pinch free clothes that need to go to the needy, Scooby Doo Thief!"

"There's plenty here, they won't go without," Rose said. "They can make do without Scooby Doo. I want it!"

"Doo Hog."

The Doctor scampered away when Rose tried to swat his head. She folded the jeans and put them back before turning around and looking through some jackets and hoodies on a large rack. The Doctor strolled back over to the rack and stood across from her, staring at her with accusing eyes while Rose tried not to look at him.

"Doo Hog, Doo Hog, robbing the needy of a dog."

"Shut… up!" Rose said with a laugh while the Doctor made tsk tsk sounds at her. His tsking grew louder when Rose took a hanger off the rack and looked at a purple jacket. She slammed the hanger back on the rack when the Doctor said, "shameful, some poor soul will need that jacket."

"Now listen here, you git," Rose said laughing as she came around the rack towards him. "You're getting on my last nerve, you hear me?"

"I'm your conscience trying to dissuade you from partaking in clothes you don't need and a Scooby Doo blanket you definitely do not need. How old are you again?"

"Fine, I'm putting it back," Rose said.

She started to walk away but the Doctor grabbed her arm and gave her a wink when she looked at him. He took her hand and they walked up to the front where woman were standing behind a counter putting people's things in sacks. They started to go up the ramp when a woman behind the counter called to them.

"Do you need socks or underwear before you go?" the woman said.

"Um, no thanks, I got what I needed," Rose said.

They waved to the women and walked up the ramp and out of the building.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

After getting their backpacks and sack lunches, they headed out of the patio and back to the road. While they were walking, the Doctor narrowed his eyes when he saw an old homeless man in front of his TARDIS trying to open the door. He pointed it out to Rose and they headed across the street towards him.

"Oi!" the Doctor said, running to him. "Get away from there."

The man turned. He had long white hair, a long white beard and had a bleary eyed look. Rose noticed that the man was completely drunk as he staggered towards them.

"I gotta get inside," the man slurred, pointing to the TARDIS. "I gotta pee in the portapotty."

"That's not a portaloo, sir, that's a...phone booth," the Doctor said, deciding on the American term.

The man gave him an uncomprehending look.

"Gotta pee," he slurred, pointing to the TARDIS door.

The Doctor sighed, realizing the man was too drunk to understand that it was a police box and not a portaloo.

"Look, why don't you ask the people over there where a...restroom is?" the Doctor said, pointing to the people on the patio.

"Why do I wanna do that when there's a portapotty right here?" the man said angrily while he pointed to the TARDIS.

"Excuse me," the Doctor said, taking Rose's hand and going around him.

"Hey, I'm first!" the man said when the Doctor hurriedly took out his key and opened the door. "Damn it, I was first!"

The Doctor pushed Rose inside and slipped in, closing the door just as the man reached it and began banging on the door.

"What are you doing?" Rose said, ignoring the angry shouts of the drunken man as he pounded on the door.

"Rose, I feel for him, I honestly do, but I don't want to come back and find urine and feces all over my ship from drunks who think this is the local bog. I'm going to move the TARDIS to a different location and increase the perception filter so no one's likely to notice her. Just hold on.

"HEY! LET ME IN!" the man said, pounding on the door. "DAMN IT, MOTHER FUCKER, I WAS FIRST! I GOTTA PEE!"

The Doctor started up the TARDIS and they heard the man's shocked yell before it faded away. They flew for a few seconds and then landed. Rose stood by and watched while the Doctor worked the controls, upping the intensity of the perception filter. Then he beckoned to her and headed towards the door. He paused when he got there and saw Rose was putting her blanket into her backpack.

"Doo Hog," he said.

"You be quiet," she said to him while he snickered.

She put her backpack on her back and ran to the Doctor. They opened the door and looked out. They were now across from the city bus station. The smell of exhaust was in the air while buses moved in and out. In the center of a paved area was a large brick bus station. Ringed around it were bus bays with metal chairs where people could wait for the buses as they pulled up to them. The Doctor and Rose came outside and the Doctor shut the door before they walked around a metal barrier and headed for the bus station. They went inside and walked over to a information booth in the center of the station. The booth was circular and completely enclosed with glass on all sides. A woman sat at a counter behind the glass, looking bored. She perked up and smiled when the Doctor and Rose walked up.

"May I help you?"

She spoke into a microphone and they heard her voice coming from a circular speaker mounted in the glass.

"Yes, how much is bus fare?" the Docto said.

"$1.50 but today the buses are free."

The Doctor perked up.

"Free? All day?" he said.

"Yes, sir."

"Brilliant. We just got into town, is there anything to do here?" he asked her.

"Depends on what you're interested in," the lady said. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, a little bit of everything actually," the Doctor said while Rose nodded.

"That doesn't help me," the lady said with a tinge of annoyance.

The Doctor felt someone tap his shoulder and he looked over his shoulder at a portly black woman.

"I think the zoo is free today," she said to him.

"Is it?" the Doctor said to the lady in the booth.

"I think so. Bus 22 if you want to go there," the lady said.

"Rose? Wanna go?"

"Sure," she said to the Doctor.

"What time does the next bus arrive then?" the Doctor said.

"There are schedules around the corner," the lady said, pointing behind her.

The Doctor thanked her and took Rose's hand while they walked around the information booth. On the wall beside it were maps in a rack. The Doctor found the schedule for bus 22 and took it. He opened it, checked the time on his watch and picked out the next time from the schedule. He smiled at Rose and they walked outside to 22's bus bay. They sat down on the metal seats and waited. By now the sun was up and Rose gasped when she felt the oppressive heat.

"Cor, what time is it?" she asked the Doctor.

"Um, almost half past seven in the morning," he said, looking at his watch.

"Seriously, it's hotter than an oven out here," Rose said, taking the schedule and fanning himself with it.

"Yes, I noticed that as well," the Doctor said. "Hope it doesn't get much hotter than this."

"I know," Rose said. "I don't wanna walk around the zoo with heaps of sweat running off me."

"But if it did, you could have an instant shower wherever you go."

He chuckled when Rose swatted him with the schedule. Then went back to fanning herself while they looked for any sign of bus 22.

Ten minutes later, it finally rumbled up to the bay.

"Thank God," Rose said as she and the Doctor got up and put their backpacks on their backs.

The door opened and Rose sighed when the air conditioned air hit her face. They were going to bypass the black woman driving the bus but she stopped them and pointed down to a brown box at her feet.

"Free shirts," she said, pointing to the red t-shirts inside. "the ones on the left are large and the ones on the right are extra large."

"Brilliant, Rose can take one and add to her free swag collection," the Doctor said.

"Shut up!" Rose said while the Doctor giggled.

Rose chose a large t-shirt and the Doctor chose an extra large one. They looked at them while they walked to empty seats near the front. The red shirts had the words, conserve energy by taking a metro bus, on the back of them. Rose and the Doctor took their backpacks off and put the shirts inside while others filed past them, each with a shirt in hand. When everyone was inside, the driver closed the door and they rumbled away from the bus bay.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Rose sat in her seat, enjoying the air conditioning that was coming from above her. The bus rumbled along, stopping every so often to let people on and off. She scooted closer to the Doctor and laid her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

"Are you knackered already?" she heard him say.

"Mmm, no," Rose said, keeping her eyes closed, "just relaxing in the cool air."

"I'm enjoying being human," the Doctor said softly.

"Mmm, enjoy then," Rose murmured.

"I got a free t-shirt for being a human and I didn't have to pinch it from the needy."

"Belt up!" Rose said with a laugh as she kept her eyes closed.

She smiled when she felt the Doctor's face against hers and she relaxed further, happy to be with the man she loved on another adventure.

"The wheels on the bus go round and round," she heard the Doctor singing softly.

Rose giggled.

"Round and round," she sang back.

She waited for the Doctor to continue but he didn't and she mentally shrugged and enjoyed the cool air and the feel of his body against hers.

"Hey, Rose."

"Mmm?" she said when she heard the Doctor whisper to her.

"Ever see the film, Speed?"

"Mm-hmm," Rose said.

"What if we're on the Speed bus and we can't let the bus go below 55 miles per hour?"

Rose opened her eyes and saw the Doctor's look of mock fear and giggled.

"You first," Rose said, closing her eyes and snuggling up to him. "You go stop the driver and take her place."

She laughed when she felt him move and opened her eyes. She shoved him down in his seat when he started to get up.

"I was having you on," she said.

"Yeah but I was being serious. The next time she stops for a passenger, we could go ka-boom," the Doctor said.

"Then we'll die together," Rose said, closing her eyes.

The Doctor didn't say anything but she could sense him staring at her and felt his cheek on her forehead. Then he moved his cheek and she opened his eyes to see him looking out the windows across from them.

"Hey, where is the zoo anyway?" the Doctor said. "How do we know when to leave?"

"Ma'am, we need to get off at the zoo," Rose said to the driver.

"I'll let you off at Reminton Park, the zoo's next door," the driver said, glancing over her shoulder.

"What's Reminton Park?" the Doctor said.

"It's a horse racing track and casino," the driver said.

"Hey, horse racing and gambling, wanna do that?" the Doctor said.

"Thought you wanted to go to the zoo," Rose said.

"We can do both if they're side by side."

Rose shrugged.

"Whatever, as long as we do it together," Rose said, closing her eyes and laying her head back on his shoulder.

"What if the bus explodes and we die together, wanna do that?"

Rose giggled and nodded. She kept her eyes closed but she felt his breath on her face and knew he was looking at her. Her hearts raced when she heard him whisper "Beautiful," to himself and she snuggled closer to him while he put his arm around her shoulders.

"Remington Park!" the driver said to them.

Rose opened her eyes and she and the Doctor stood up while the bus slowed. They grabbed their backpacks and got off the bus. Rose grimaced when the hot air hit her face.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?" Rose said, looking at the Doctor while she shrugged her backpack on her back.

"Why is it hot beyond all endurance?" the Doctor said.

"Because you wanted to go to Oklahoma and didn't care when we went," Rose said. "And apparently we landed on a very hot day."

"I see. For a moment I thought we stepped off into Hell but Hell would be ice cold compared to this," the Doctor said as they walked up a grassy hill. "I can feel the heat and my body is equipped to deal with temperatures better than a human can."

They reached the top of the hill and saw a vast car park that stretched out for at least 300 feet before. Then there was another hill and they saw a huge glass and white concrete building. A large sign on the front said Remington Park. The Doctor looked off to the right and saw the Science Museum and beyond that the zoo. He looked at Rose.

"Want to look in here first?" he said, pointing to Reminington Park.

"Anywhere, just as long as it's cool," Rose said.

"Well, let's go inside before we melt then," the Doctor said.

Rose took his hand and the two of them hurried across the car park towards the building.


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"Air!" Rose gasped when they went in the glass double doors and the air conditioning hit her skin.

"Yes, that's what we're breathing," the Doctor said to her.

"No, cold air, what the hell is the deal with the weather, are you sure this is 2011?"

"Yes, Rose, this is 2011."

"Coulda fooled me," Rose said.

"And when did you become an expert on weather conditions and time travel, hmmm?" the Doctor said. "You've never been to 2011 before, I have, and I assure you this is 2011."

"Yeah, wanna keep it down now?" Rose said, pointing to an elderly male security guard across the room.

They were standing in a large well lit atrium. On either side of them were black benches similar to the ones at the bus stop along with horse racing memorabilia. The security guard was standing behind a podium by an escalator. Behind him was a narrow passageway. The Doctor and Rose said hello to the security guard as they passed by him looking for the casino. They rounded a bend and stopped when they saw a food court and restrooms. They looked around for the casino but couldn't find it.

"Maybe you go up the escalator," Rose said.

They doubled back to the escalator. They asked the security guard about the casino and confirmed it was upstairs. But as they were about to get on, he stopped them and pointed to their backpacks.

"Can I check those?" he said to them.

They took them off and he opened them up.

"You have food in here, you can take them in but you can't eat anything in the casino," he said to them.

"Actually, are there lockers around here where we can store those?" the Doctor said to him.

"No, but I'll tell you what, put them behind my podium and I'll keep an eye on them."

The Doctor and Rose thanked him. The guard stepped back and they put the packs in the storage compartment at the bottom of the podium. Then they went upstairs. At the top were two double doors that were open. Inside they could see the casino. They went inside and just inside the door was another podium with a thin black female security guard. She nodded hello as they passed by her. Rose wrinkled her nose at the smoky air while they looked around. They heard the ding, ding, ding of the games and faint music coming from speakers above them. Rose casually walked around with the Doctor following behind her. They came to a beverage station and the Doctor frowned when Rose grabbed a Styrofoam cup and got herself some Coke.

"Do you pay for that?" he asked.

"No, it's free, get some," she said, over her shoulder.

The Doctor smiled and got himself some Coke. They then walked around, sipping their drinks while they looked at the slot machines.

They paused when they went past one woman playing a slot machine and stood behind her, watching while the screen spun the pictures around. The Doctor frowned again when it stopped and he saw lines connecting things together while squares with pictures in them were highlighted. He noticed the woman's points increased while that happened.

"Did she win something?" he asked Rose.

"Yeah, mum plays these on occasion and I went with her sometimes. You can play a certain number of lines and depending on how many lines you play, it finds things that match and gives you points based on that."

"Oh, I was wondering why it was choosing random squares," the Doctor said.

"You've never gambled before?"

"Only with my life."

"Excuse me, would you go away?" the lady said, looking over her shoulder. "I don't like people watching me."

"Fine, sorry," Rose said.

She muttered "Bitch" under her breath while she and the Doctor walked on.

When they passed by an ATM, the Doctor stopped her.

"Cover me," he said to Rose.

Rose gave him a puzzled look but came in close to the Doctor. She watched while he pulled out his sonic screwdriver, aimed it at the ATM's screen and turned it on. Her eyes bulged when money started coming out and the Doctor quickly grabbed it while glancing around.

"Doctor!" Rose hissed.

"What? I'm not taking from anyone's account, just calm down. We'll need money on this hike anyway," he said.

"How much did you get?" Rose whispered while they walked away.

The Doctor quickly counted and found he had 200 dollars in fives and tens. He gave 100 of it to Rose and she looked around while she put it in her pocket. They sipped their drinks while they wandered around the slot machines. Then Rose stopped by one that had a goldfish motif to it. Above the screen was a little plastic window that looked in on a diorama of a movie goldfish next to a treasure chest that opened and closed. Behind it were the words Gold Fish 2. Rose watched a man playing one for a moment and then moved to the empty one next to him. The Doctor came up behind the chair as Rose sat down and put five dollars in.

"So, you see these buttons," she said to the Doctor. "These are the options for how many lines you wanna play. So I'm gonna try maximum with the bonus," she said, pushing the button and then you spin it."

She hit the spin button and the screen spun around while the Doctor leaned in and put his chin lightly on the top of her head. He frowned when the screen stopped and the lines began connecting random pictures. He brightened when Rose won 25 cents from that. She spun again and got nothing so she spun again and squealed when the lines connected things all over the screen and she won three dollars. The next spin she won two dollars and twenty five cents.

"Wow, you're good at this," the Doctor said.

"I've never won big but I like playing from time to time," Rose said.

Then the next spin, she won a bonus game and she sat back for a moment while several fishes swam around on the screen. Underneath them were ten treasure chests and at the top it told her to pick a chest and touch the screen. Rose's finger hovered over the screen for a moment and then she touched a chest. It popped open and produced a gold key. The directions told her to choose again and she looked at the Doctor.

"Do the next one," Rose said.

The Doctor thought and then touched one at the right side. Another key popped up. Rose chose a third one and got another key. She looked at the Doctor. He chose one in the middle and this time got a pearl. His eyes widened when they heard ding, ding, ding and both of them watched with glee when she won 15 dollars from the game. Rose squealed with delight and pumped her fist in the air.

"Lucky Rose, that's you," the Doctor said.

Rose spun again and got three pearls in a row and won 10 bonus spins. She sat back again as the three columns automatically spun for her. The Doctor's eyes bulged when she kept winning big and winning more spins. Rose's mouth dropped open as her money kept increasing and she looked at the Doctor with glee. The Doctor patted her shoulder and they kept watching while she won more spins and more money.

"Oh my God, what if I win big?" Rose said to the Doctor.

"Then we celebrate your lucky winning streak," the Doctor said.

Rose could hardly believe her eyes when the total went up over one hundred dollars and kept going.

"I...I've never won this much," she said. "I mean I've won maybe 30 quid tops but this...oh my God, you're lucky, Doctor."

"Me, you're the one who's winning."

"No, I mean you're my lucky charm. I've never won this much before," Rose said.

They both were in shock when the spins finally stopped and Rose stared in a stunned silence at the 227 dollar total at the bottom of the screen.

"Um...not pressing my luck anymore," she said, hitting the cash out button.

The voucher came out and Rose took it. She and the Doctor squealed at the cash amount and Rose looked around for the cashier. The Doctor followed her, proud of her winning streak while Rose walked to the cashier and handed the voucher to a lady behind the counter. The lady gave her 227 dollars and Rose thanked her. She tried to give some to the Doctor and he held up his hand.

"No, this is yours. You won it, you keep it," he said.

"Lunch? It's on me," Rose said.

"I won't object to that," the Doctor said.

They found the buffet but were turned off when it looked like a cafeteria. Rose looked at the Doctor.

"Let's go somewhere else, I don't like the look of this place."

"Yeah, me neither," the Doctor said.

They got another round of Cokes at the beverage station and walked around. They passed by the roulette table and came back to it, stopping to observe.

"Gonne try the roulette wheel?" the Doctor said to Rose.

"Nah, not pressing my luck, I'll just watch," Rose said.

They watched while people placed chips on different numbers on the felt table. At the end was the roulette wheel and the dealer spun it to keep it going and then put the black ball in the slot and spun it around. The ball spun around the outside of the wheel and the dealer waved her hand over the numbers to indicate betting was closed. The ball landed in number 23 and the dealer placed a white marker on top of several chips on that number and swept everything else towards her. One elderly lady gave the dealer 200 dollars and she gave her the equivalent back in chips. The lady placed them all over the board while the Doctor watched her. Then the wheel was spun and she lost 150 dollars. She placed the remaining 50 down on the next round and lost that. Then the Doctor watched while she asked for 100 dollars worth of chips from the dealer. By now, Rose was also watching her.

"She just spent more than you won in about ten minutes," the Doctor whispered to Rose.

"I know," Rose whispered back. "That's why I don't play the table games. I don't have that sort of money to waste."

They watched while she put 50 down and lost it. Rose shook her head and tugged on the Doctor's sleeve.

"Pension, you think?" she whispered.

"Let's hope it's not her rent money," the Doctor whispered back.

Rose nodded and they watched her play the other 50 and lose that. Then they moved on. They reached the back of the casino and saw where people could sit and watch the horse racing. A huge red curtain was covering the plate glass window since no race was happening but there was stadium seating with ten rows of plush leather chairs. Each row had a half wall in front of it where TVs were mounted that played other races. Rose went down the steps to the top row and went to the first chair while the Doctor followed. Rose sat down and gasped when the cushion sank low and the Doctor giggled at the shocked look on her face. He patted her shoulder when she eyed him and went to the next chair. He sat down slowly and sighed contentedly when he relaxed. The TV in front of them played the beginning of a race in Florida and the announcer was talking about the horses while the jockeys led them to the gate. Beside Rose was a small circular table with a lamp and a little information card that listed the different races on the TV and the times they were shown. Rose picked up the card and studied it while the Doctor sipped his Coke and listened to the broadcast.

"These races, here," the Doctor said, gesturing to the screen with his Coke. "You can bet on these as well?"

"I think so," Rose said. "Never played the horses though. You?"

"Been to horse races, never bet on them," the Doctor said before taking another sip.

"You mean you've been to the derby with the Queen?" Rose said.

"Not the Queen, King George III invited me to and I went and saw the match race between Seabiscuit and War Admiral."

"I saw that film," Rose said.

"I saw the real thing," the Doctor said smugly.

She slapped his arm with the card while the Doctor gave her a triumphant grin. Rose glanced at the TV screen.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"Tits And Ass is being loaded into the gate," he said.

"There is no horse called Tits And Ass," she said.

"Is so. They just showed him, a majestic black stallion called Tits And Ass."

"Pull the other one, Doctor."

"Seriously. Tits And Ass, they just showed him."

"Who's in the gate beside him? Vagina And Penis?" Rose said.

"Nah, he's in the next race."

Rose swatted his arm while the Doctor snickered.

"It's a beautiful day here in Orlando," the announcer said as jockey led his horse to the gate. "Up next is Mamma's Boy and right after him is Luck Of The Draw."

"Need one called Time Lord."

"Sorry?" the Doctor said.

"You know how these horses have long weird names. I wanna buy one and call it Time Lord and race it."

"Bit disrespectful, isn't it?"

"Who says?" Rose said.

"I say, Time Lord is who I am, you can't call a horse Time Lord."

"I can call a horse whatever I want and I'll call mine Time Lord."

"Fine, I'll purchase one and call it Rose's Mums A Harpy Hag and see if it wins anything."

He snickered and took a sip of his Coke, when Rose eyed him.

"I'll purchase one and call it Gallifreyan Git then," Rose said.

"I'll purchase one and call it Chubby Chav ASBO Hooligan Tart Manky Grotty…."

The Doctor ducked when Rose tried to swat at his head. He stuck out his tongue as he pulled an ice cube from his cup and threw it at her. Rose pulled an ice cube out of hers and threw it at him. They glanced around and calmed down before anyone saw them. The Doctor gave Rose's hair an affectionate tousle while they sipped their drinks and relaxed.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

After getting one last round of Cokes, they went back downstairs, collected their backpacks from the security guard and went outside. By now, the air was scorching and Rose gasped at the change in temperature.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is it hot beyond all reason?"

"Because you landed in the middle of Hell."

"No, I imagine Hell would be cooler than this," the Doctor said.

They walked up some steps and headed across the car park. The Doctor felt a bit of sweat on his forehead and he told Rose about it.

"So, I'm sweating," Rose said.

"Yes, but I'm better able to deal with extreme temperatures. The fact that I have sweat on my forehead should tell you how hot it really is," he said.

"Aw, poor baby," Rose said condescendingly. "Can't handle the heat? Need some cool air now?"

The Doctor cocked his eyebrow. Then he smirked as he reached into his cup, grabbed an ice cube and chucked it at her.

"Oi, quit that!"

The Doctor chucked another one at her and he ran when Rose snatched three ice cubes and hurled them at his head. The Doctor spun around and Rose ran when he flung two ice cubes at her head in return. Then Rose squealed when the Doctor fished an ice cube out and ran towards her.

"No! Quit!" Rose said when he caught up to her and put the ice cube down the back of her trousers.

He bent over laughing when Rose hurled curses at him and ran off when she tried to smack his head.

"You are a little child!" she said, jabbing her finger at him.

The Doctor stuck his tongue out at her and jogged back to her. By now, Rose had to stand a moment and get her breath from running in the heat with a large backpack on her back. The Doctor rubbed her back and stood with her until she got her wind back and they continued on. They walked diagonally across the car park to the end of it. On the way, Rose pointed to the Science Museum.

"Wanna go?" she asked.

"Nah, too juvenile for me," the Doctor said. "I hate going through them. All I do is point out everything the humans get wrong or I yawn at the elementary science. It's no fun for me."

"Fair enough," Rose said.

They reached the end of the car park and turned left onto the grass. They walked past the Science Museum to the zoo and turned left, going up a short driveway to the car park. When they got to the ticket booth, the lady counted them and let them go through.

"Now," Rose said, looking around. "Where's a cage for the Doctor?"

"Now," the Doctor said, looking around, "Where's the hippo enclosure for Rose?"

He ran when Rose tried to hit his back. He winked at her and took her hand. They noticed some lockers nearby.

"Blast, don't have fifty cents," Rose said when they reached them and read the price for renting one.

The Doctor let out a melodramatic sigh.

"Why must I be cursed with ineptitude?" he said melodramatically as he walked back to the ticket counter.

He gave the woman a dollar and received four quarters in exchange. Rose flipped him off when he walked back to her, mumbling about ineptitude and companions not using their brains as he handed her fifty cents. Rose stuck her tongue out at him and they both put fifty cents in the slots. They stored their backpacks in the lockers but before the Doctor closed his, he had a thought, opened his backpack and pulled the bottled water out. He put it in his trouser pocket and took Rose's hand before they headed off down an asphalt path.

Because the zoo was free, it was crowded and the Doctor and Rose navigated through the crowds till they found a map on a billboard listing where the animals were. They found the You Are Here sticker and then looked at what path they had to take to get to the animals.

"Look, kangaroos are all the way at the back," the Doctor said, pointing to the top of the map.

"That's what you wanna see?"

"Sure, I love roos, they're funny creatures. Reminds me of Kanga from Winnie the Pooh."

"I wanna see the lions and tigers and big cats," Rose said.

"Hmmm, looks like those are in the center, here in the big cat enclosure thingy, whatsa-ma-dooder," he said, pointing to a large forested area in the center of the map.

"Whatsa-ma-dooder? Is that a scientific term?"

"No, that's a made-up term, there's a difference."

He giggled when Rose tried to smack him. He took her hand and they walked off down the path. After a few minutes, the Doctor stopped when they still hadn't seen any animals.

"Okay, the map indicated there were animals in here, where are they?" the Doctor said to Rose.

"Good question, this is a zoo, right?" Rose said.

"I assume so, unless we wandered into a brothel by mistake."

"What?" Rose said, laughing. "Brothel? What made you think of that?"

"Dunno, I s'pose Jack popped into my mind and gave me the idea. Good job he isn't here, he'd be jumping the fence and mating with the rhinos or something."

"Ewww," Rose said while the Doctor chuckled.

They walked on but the Doctor sighed when another minute passed and they saw nothing but trees and grass and people.

"Yoo-hoo, animals, where are ya?" he said while Rose laughed.

"They're hiding from the heat," Rose said.

"Can't say I blame them," the Doctor said. "I'm surprised they aren't all roasted by now. Hullo…"

They walked up to an enclosure and the Doctor feigned shock.

"Oh my God," he said in a high-pitched voice while Rose laughed, "there are animals here. This isn't just a trap where you walk around till you drop dead. Phew, that's a relief!"

"You're being silly today," Rose said.

"So? I can't have fun with my favorite friend?" the Doctor said. "We go through too many serious situations as it is, I want a break from that and have a laugh with my Rose."

Rose smiled at that and nodded as he took her hand and squeezed it.

"So, what mangy animal is roasting alive in here?" the Doctor said, looking into the enclosure.

"Says porcupine," Rose said, pointing to a plague affixed to the waist high glass wall in front of them.

The Doctor looked around. The enclosure was surrounded on three sides by a high rock wall and inside that was a grassy area and a tiny pond and some rocks but no porcupine.

"And…where is it?" the Doctor said while Rose shrugged. "Is it on holiday?"

Rose giggled.

"It's in Jack's bed."

The Doctor snorted.

"Good luck, Jack, getting the quills out of your crotch," he said while Rose laughed.

He sighed as he tried to find the porcupine.

"So, nada then, what a zoo, eh?" the Doctor said while Rose nodded.

Rose moved around him and pointed off to the right.

"Wait, there he is, there's a little sheltered area in the rocks," she said, pointing.

The Doctor moved around her and looked where she was pointing. In the rock wall was a shallow hole. The porcupine was curled up inside it, resting.

"We couldn't see it because this part of the rock was blocking this hole," Rose said, pointing to the part of the cliff that jutted out a bit in front.

"Okay, so he's asleep! This is boring. I paid good money to come here and see the animals."

"Good money? This was free," Rose said.

"This is boring, I paid good no-money to come here and see the animals," he said while Rose giggled. "Hey, Spiny, wake up. People are watching, get over here and entertain us!"

"Nope," Rose said when the porcupine didn't move.

"Bollocks, I hate animals who won't obey me. I would kick its arse but I don't want to spend the rest of the day pulling quills out of my foot. Come on, let's see what's next."

They walked five feet to a similar enclosure. They looked in and saw four meerkats resting by a small pond.

"Hey!" the Doctor said to them while Rose laughed, "get up, people are watching. I need to be entertained. Sing Hakuna Matata and dance for me!"

"Or do that little alert pose you do," Rose added.

"Yeah, get up and do the oh no, danger's coming pose you do," the Doctor said. "Or do Hakuna Matata."

The Doctor feigned exasperation while Rose bent over the glass wall laughing.

"Hakuna Matata! How hard can it be for you lot?" the Doctor said when the animals didn't move.

"They need the warthog…maybe?" Rose said.

"Oh! That's right, where's the warthog enclosure so we can chuck one in there and get them to dance?" the Doctor said, looking around. "I paid good no-money and I need to see more than animals sleeping. Where's the staff with the shock sticks? That'll get them up and running."

He smiled when Rose leaned into him laughing. He put his arm around her and they walked on. Five feet from that was a tortoise. The tortoise was standing by his pond, staring off into space. Rose laughed when the Doctor threw his hands up in the air.

"Nature is boring! Is there a shock stick anywhere? Come on, do something, do ninja things, spin plates, smoke a cigar, just don't stand there looking catatonic!"

The Doctor gasped when the turtle took a step.

"Did you see that?" he said while Rose laughed, "it moved one foot. There's hope for their species yet."

They moved on. The Doctor noticed Rose was sweating profusely and he pulled the water out of his pocket and offered it to her. She thanked him, took off the cap and took a swig while the Doctor watched over her.

"If you need this, let me know, don't die of heat stroke or something like that," he said when Rose gave it back to him.

Rose nodded and he took her hand and they walked on. They came to a fork in the road and looked up a wooden signpost in the middle of it that pointed out where different animals were.

"Well, we go left and go to the aviary or head towards the elephant that way," the Doctor said, pointing right. "What do you wanna do?"

"Elephants. I'm not really interested in the birds," Rose said.

"Fair enough," the Doctor said as they turned right.

They heard an engine behind them and stepped to the side when a tram loaded with people passed by. Once it was past them, they headed on down the path.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"Okay, Jumbo, where's Dumbo at?" the Doctor said to the elephants while Rose giggled.

They found the elephant enclosure, a huge glassed in area with several rocks and a larger pond and some trees. There were three females and a little baby that was resting near its mother. The Doctor pointed to the baby.

"Is that Dumbo? I don't see the ginormous ears though," the Doctor said.

"Maybe It's freak Dumbo," Rose said. "Remember that Twilight Zone episode where they had the pig people and the one pretty lady who was the freak because she was pretty? Maybe it's like that?"

"How?" the Doctor said while Rose laughed. "The pig people looked different from the woman because they weren't human and she was, these are all elephants, how does your analogy apply to them?"

"Just saying," Rose said.

"Yeah, you're just saying but only noise is coming out."

He ducked when Rose tried to smack his head. They walked on and turned left to go towards the big cat area. On the way, they stopped when they saw another enclosure. The animal resembled an ugly elk without antlers. The Doctor looked for the plaque but couldn't find any.

"I see it," Rose said, walking further down from him. "Says it's a mule deer," she said when she got to it.

"That's not a deer, it's some sort of mutant cow experiment," the Doctor said when Rose came back to him. "It's nothing like a deer. I think it's a cow experiment."

"A mutant cow deer?" Rose said.

"Yes!" the Doctor said while she laughed, "a mutant cow deer, well said."

They walked on and looked at the different animals. While they did, the Doctor kept a close eye on Rose. She was sweating but so far seemed to be alright. They managed to find the big cat area which was shaded in with big oak and elm trees and Rose took advantage of that to find a bench and rest in the shade. Rose took another swig of the water while the Doctor sat down beside her.

"If it gets to be too much, tell me," the Doctor said. "We don't have to see everything if you don't feel up to walking through this heat."

"This is insane, it's boiling out here," Rose said. "Does Oklahoma get this hot? I'm glad they had a place to put the backpacks because I'd be dead by now."

"I know. Perhaps we should leave and come back later when it cools down? Do something else that's indoors?"

"Sounds good to me," Rose said. "I think I'll faint soon if we don't get somewhere cool."

"Do you wanna find somewhere to eat?" the Doctor said. "You don't have to use your winnings, I'll pay."

"I saw a McDonalds near here, let's go there and at least get out of the heat," Rose said.

The Doctor nodded. He sat with her while she rested and felt the back of her shirt. He grimaced when he felt it wet with sweat.

"Yeah, you need to get out of the heat," he said. "The back of your shirt is completely damp now."

"And you're wearing a suit, I envy your ability to take the heat like this," Rose said.

"Yes, but even I'm feeling it. I don't think I'm in danger of heat exhaustion or stroke but you are so I don't want to take any chances. Just take it slow going back and keep the water handy."

Rose nodded. They rested for another twenty minutes before they stood up and headed back. They walked slowly and Rose kept taking swigs of water. They tried to keep to the shaded areas but even there the heat was oppressive. Finally, Rose spied the tram coming towards them.

"Thank God," she said, flagging it down.

It stopped and the Doctor and Rose breathed sighs of relief when they climbed on and sat down near the back.

The tram was heading away from the exit but they were shaded and there was a bit of wind with the movement of the vehicle. They looked at the animals while the tram did a complete circuit around the park. A half hour later, they were back at the front gate. She groaned when they got their packs and she put hers back on her back.

"I think we picked the wrong year to do a hike, Doctor," she said to him as they headed towards the entrance.

They left the zoo and tried to stick to the shaded areas but when they reached the end of the driveway, Rose groaned when they saw McDonalds was down the road from them. The Doctor took her hand and gave her some encouragement as they walked along the hill towards it. After twenty minutes, they reached the door much to Rose's relief.

"Air!" the Doctor said, imitating Rose when they went inside.

Rose mouthed "Fuck you," to the Doctor while he sniggered.

They put their backpacks down inside a booth and went to the queue in front of the cashier. Rose kept her eyes on their stuff while they waited for the line to go down. While she was doing that, the Doctor looked at her. Her face was beet red from the heat and sweaty but he was relieved to see it was going away now that they were inside. When it was their turn, Rose ordered a small cheeseburger and a hot fudge sundae and the Doctor ordered a small cheeseburger and a Coke. Once they got their things, they walked back to their seat and the Doctor watched while Rose put the chopped nuts on her ice cream and took a huge bite.

"Oh, that feels so good going down," Rose said, swallowing the ice cream.

"Sure you'll be alright?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah, just need to rest and cool off."

"I have the schedule so I'll keep an eye on the time and we'll go outside when it's nearly time for the bus to be here. That way you're not out there, getting all red faced again."

Rose touched her face.

"Am I red faced?"

"Extremely. I was getting a bit worried. We should have held off on the zoo until it was cooler. Shouldn't have let the fact that it was free bring us here. You saw what I did with the cashpoint so we didn't have to risk heat stroke to come here. Sorry."

"No worries, I had fun, just couldn't take much more of the heat, that's all. I don't care what we do as long as I'm with you."

The Doctor smiled at that and sipped his Coke while Rose ate her ice cream. The Doctor kept an eye on the time and when it was nearing time for the bus to come, they gathered up their things and walked outside to the bench beside the bus stop.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

When the bus got back to the station, the Doctor visually checked his TARDIS as they got off and headed towards the building.

"Let's find somewhere where we can escape the heat for a bit," the Doctor said to Rose as they went inside.

They spoke to the lady at the information desk asking if there was somewhere they could go for a bit till it cooled off.

"Well, there's the library down the street from here," the lady said.

"How far?" the Doctor asked.

"About four blocks. Go outside, turn right and it's a big white building with glass windows on the corner up by the courthouse," she said.

The Doctor thanked her and took Rose's hand. They stepped outside and turned right.

"Rose?"

"Yeah?"

"Why is it hotter than the fires of Hell and damnation itself?"

Rose giggled and the Doctor grinned at that. They crossed the street and headed towards the library. On the way, they passed by a bank and the Doctor happened to see the temperature on the digital display on the sign. Rose stopped when he did.

"Rose, it said it was 107 degrees out. No wonder we're baking. 107? We have to get inside now before we roast alive! We haven't much time and…wait…Americans use Fahrenheit, don't they? Phew, I thought it was 107 degrees Celsius and we were seconds away from death."

"We still could be," Rose said.

"True. Let's hurry then," the Doctor said.

Two blocks from that, they found the library. The Doctor whistled when he saw how big it was. It took up one block and was four stories high.

"Wow! This is nice," the Doctor said while they headed for the entrance.

"Air!" they both said when they went inside the sliding doors.

They laughed and walked into the main part of the library. It was huge with computers off to the right side, four to a table, and books on metal bookshelves beside them. There was a security desk with three people clustered around it when they came inside. Rose noticed the two men and woman gave them dirty looks for some reason but they walked past them and found a couple of comfy wooden chairs with fabric backing. They took off their backpacks and slumped down into the chairs.

"Ahhh, comfy chairs, nothing like them," the Doctor said.

"Yeah and air conditioning, nothing like that," Rose said, leaning her head back and closing her eyes while she rested. Suddenly, she heard someone knocking on the armrest of her chair and she looked up at an elderly security guard.

"No sleeping!" he said sternly.

"I wasn't," Rose said. "I was resting because I'd been out in the heat for most of the day and I was resting my eyes."

"No sleeping or you have to leave," the guard said before moving on.

"I wasn't," Rose said while the Doctor glared at the guard.

"Don't worry about it, Rose, he's trying to be the heavy," the Doctor said to her. "Just relax, I wanna find something to read."

He got up and wandered over to a rack filled with newspapers. There were two separate racks, one had newspapers from all over Oklahoma and the other was from the rest of the country and the world. There were also two racks filled with magazines. Rose slumped down in the chair, folded her arms across her body and glanced around. She stopped looking when she saw a man walking towards the empty chair beside her. The man was at least 300 pounds and was big around like a basketball. He smiled at Rose as he waddled over to the chair beside her and sank down into it. Rose turned her attention back to everyone else. She watched the people sitting at the computers and noticed a large number of people had backpacks and bags. She noticed a few of them looked scruffy and figured they were homeless. She looked at the Doctor when he tapped her on the shoulder.

"Last weeks, Sunday Times," he said, showing her the newspaper. "Interested?"

"Yeah," Rose said.

The Doctor gave her the newspaper and sat down beside her. Rose glanced at the other thing in his hands and saw he had a copy of Field and Stream.

"You're reading that?" she said, pointing to the magazine.

"Yeah, why?"

"You read a hunting magazine?" she said, pointing to the heading on the front that said Kill A Ten Point Stag, Here's How To Do It.

"Oh that? No, just love looking at the photos of animals. I don't give a fig about hunting them," he said.

Rose shrugged and thumbed through the Times. It was a week old but it didn't matter anyway since she was out of her time and anything the paper had to say would be new to her. She read the main news first but found nothing of real interest so she decided to check out the celebrities and see what they were doing 5 years in the future. On the front of the entertainment section, she saw a woman who was dressed in rubber with what looked like black condoms hanging off it.

"What the hell?" Rose said.

"Something wrong?" the Doctor said, looking up from the magazine.

"Lady Gaga?" Rose said, showing him the photo. "Is this an alien?"

"Um...well...maybe," the Doctor said.

"Well if she isn't, she sure dresses like one," Rose said while the Doctor snickered.

She went back to reading the newspaper when suddenly she heard an enormous snore from the chair beside her. She and the Doctor looked at the obese man who had fallen asleep and was now snoring so loudly, Rose was sure they could hear it all through the library.

"SNNNNAAAAA-sneeeeerk," he snored. "SNNNAAAA-sneeeeeerk."

"Geez," Rose said while the Doctor giggled.

By now, everyone was watching him snore. Rose put the paper up over her head so no one could see her while they watched him. The Doctor was amused by that and stuck his head next to hers so his face would be hidden as well.

"SNNNNNAAAA-sneeeerk."

"I love the snerk at the end of the snore. Gives it a bit of character, don't you think?" the Doctor said to Rose.

They looked towards the man when a thinner, taller security guard came up to him. The security guard paused by the man's chair and listened to him snore. He caught the Doctor and Rose's eye and winked at them before he began to shake the guy awake. The man let out a snort and jerked his eyes up. The security guard beckoned to him and waited until the man got out of the chair. Then he escorted him out of the building.

"Wow, they mean business here," the Doctor said as they watched the security guard walk the man to the doors.

"I'll see. But...I've never heard anything snore like that. I'm sure they could hear him back at the bus station."

The Doctor giggled and nodded.

"Rested?" he asked Rose.

"Yeah, why? Wanna do something else?"

"Well...wait a tic, be right back. Read your newspaper."

He got up and walked over to the desk where the librarians sat while Rose perused more of the newspaper. She glanced at the Doctor while he chatted with a young lady sitting behind the desk. After ten minutes, he walked back over to her.

"Well, there's an art museum just across the street and they have a free trolley that goes to a section near here called Bricktown where they have a baseball stadium and shops and restaurants. They also have a canal that goes through Bricktown and boat rides. And just up the street is the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial. Those are the things within walking distance. And just down the street here is a large park called Myriad Gardens. What'd ya think? Anything catch your fancy?"

"Let's go to the art museum first and maybe go to Bricktown and eat and go on the boat ride. The other things I'd rather do after dark. Well, the bombing memorial, how late does it stay open?"

The Doctor held up a finger and walked back to the desk. He chatted with the lady and walked back after a few minutes.

"There's a museum that stays open till five but the memorial itself is open 24/7 and she said that the chairs they have for each person light up after dark."

"Okay, let's do this then. Go to the art museum since it's the closest thing and then ride that trolley into Bricktown and maybe go to the park and see the memorial after dark."

"Sounds good, my faithful companion. I have a thought though, I think we should hurry back to the bus station and put our packs inside the TARDIS since we had a problem wearing them inside Remington Gardens."

Rose nodded. She folded the newspaper and put it on a nearby table before she and the Doctor left the library.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Rose was thankful the Doctor had the idea to stow their backpacks in the TARDIS because she felt better without the added weight on her back. The Doctor quickly checked the TARDIS and patted her side when he found that all was well, then they walked back to the art museum. They stopped on the way in to the building when they noticed a huge glass sculpture in a bay window that rose to three stories. The structure was made up of blown yellow glass that had been twisted into a snake like shape and inserted into a steel base so it resembled a tree like structure. Rose had her digital camera with her and she took a photo of it and then took a photo of the Doctor standing in front of it. Then they went inside. They paid the admission and walked out of the lobby into the first gallery that had renaissance era paintings in it. Rose walked over to a landscape painting and studied it while the Doctor walked to the othe side of the room.

"Crap. Crap. Crap," the Doctor said, moving from one painting to another. "Crappy, crap, crap, crap, Crapola. Eh, this one's not too bad but a bit on the crap side."

"Doctor, will you behave?" Rose said while the Doctor gave her a cheeky grin.

She went back to looking at her painting and noticed the Doctor coming up beside her. He reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out his spectacles and put them on. Then he leaned in and scratched his chin while he stared at the painting with an intense look on his face.

"Okay," Rose said, "that's enough of the whole snooty art critic bit."

"There's a painting error just right here," he said pointing to a random spot on the painting.

"Yeah, sure there is," Rose said, moving to the next painting.

The Doctor followed her and took her hand while they studied the paintings together. When they got to a portrait of a severe looking woman in puritan dress, the Doctor pointed to her.

"I know this woman," he said.

"Oh, you do not," Rose said.

"Yes, I do. Her name is Agatha Freewell."

Rose was about to protest when the Doctor pointed to a small plaque beside the painting. Rose walked over and examined it and was shocked to see Agatha Freewell listed for the title of the portrait. She glanced at the Doctor and wondered if his keen eyes had spotted the name but she decided to play along just in case he was telling the truth so he walked back to him.

"So...who is Agatha Freewell?" she said.

The Doctor pointed to the portrait.

"I mean, who is she to you, ya git," Rose said while he snickered.

"Well, I once traveled to the 1700's and I got out of the TARDIS and ran right into this woman and I said, "I'm sorry, Miss..." and she said, "Agatha Freewell," and I said, "Sorry," and went on my merry way."

Rose waited for more of the story and gave him a withering look when she realized that was it.

"Wow, that was riveting alright," Rose said.

"I didn't say it would be exciting. I just said I met her and you asked me how I knew her and I told you."

"Anyway..." Rose said, taking his hand.

The Doctor ruffled her hair affectionately while they continued on through the galleries. Most of the galleries had paintings but they had more of the blown glass too by Dale Chihuly who was famous for the blown glass artwork. Rose was admiring some blown glass that resembled big blue bowls and giggled when the Doctor made breaking glass noises behind her.

"You would, wouldn't you?" she said, looking over her shoulder.

"Would what?"

"Break all these glass sculptures."

The Doctor gave her a cheesy grin and made more breaking glass noises while he walked up to her side.

"Nah, wouldn't do that. It takes alot of skill to blow glass. I've tried it before and you have to have the lungs to do it."

"Well, Motor Mouth, you'd probably make a fortune doing it then."

She giggled and ran when the Doctor tried to grab at her hair. He caught up to her and they finished the tour of the art museum before going back outside. Rose gasped when they hit the hot air, not it was sweltering.

"Rose?"

Rose grinned.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Why is my flesh melting off my body like candle wax?"

"This will be a running joke with you, right?"

"Right," the Doctor said.

"Okay, well, where do we catch this trolley?"

"They told me we could do that at the bus station."

They walked back over to the station and went inside to get out of the heat. Rose went into the lavatory while the Doctor waited for her by the entrance. While he waited, a drunken black man stumbled up to him.

"Hello, G," he said, extending his hand.

"Hello," the Doctor said.

"Haven't seen you around here before, G."

"Um, no, my friend and I just arrived this morning."

"Whoa, G, you from England or something like that?"

"Yeah, something like that," the Doctor said, recoiling a bit at the smell of liquor on the man's breath.

"What your name, G?"

"Um...John."

"John G, I'm G, G."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Nice to meet you...G," he said.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too, G. Welcome to Oklahoma, G."

"Yeah, thanks."

G looked at Rose as she was coming out of the lavatory.

"Hi!" he said, stumbling up to her. "What's your name, G?"

Rose was startled when he got right in her face.

"Um...Rose," she said, inching towards the Doctor.

"My name's G, Rose G. You with John G?"

"What?" Rose muttered while the Doctor held in his laughter. "My name isn't Rose G."

"It's cool, G. It's all cool. I just call everyone G and I call myself G. But gotta go, I got a bottle of Night Train calling my name, G. Catch ya later, G."

"Bye, odd man," Rose said while the Doctor laughed silently.

"G!" G said to someone else on the other side of the station, "What's up, G? Guess what! I just drank three bottles of Night Train, G!"

"What's Night Train?" the Doctor said.

"It's whiskey, Doctor, you do see how pissed the man is, right?"

"Yes, but I don't drink often enough to know brand names of booze," the Doctor said. I do see that he's pissed, a blind man could see that."

"MORNIN' HOUSE!"

The Doctor and Rose jerked their heads towards the front door when a tall, gangly elderly black man stumbled inside. Rose sighed when she noticed he was also completely drunk.

"G!" G said when he saw him. "How's it going, G?"

"Is everyone G to this bloke?" Rose said while the Doctor sniggered.

"I am drunk, that's how I am," the man said.

"J.J.!" someone else called to him.

J.J. stumbled over to a young black man and they talked loudly. The Doctor tapped Rose on the shoulder and jerked his head towards the door. Rose nodded and they went outside. The Doctor led her across the asphalt to a bus bay and they stood and waited for the trolley.

"That lady described it to me," the Doctor said, looking around. "Looks like a San Franciso trolley on wheels."

Rose saw someone coming up to her out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head and saw a slightly disheveled Indian man smiling at her. She looked at his bloodshot eyes and drunken smile and sighed.

"Is everyone in Oklahoma City drunk or something?" she said while the Doctor looked at the man.

"I'm not drunk," the man said. "I just wanted to say hello."

"Hello," Rose said quickly but the man extended his hand to her.

"I'm Suri," he said.

The Doctor took his hand and shook it.

"I'm John, this is Rose," he said.

"You invaded my country," the man said with bleary eyes.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor said.

"You're British, right? I'm from India. You invaded my country," he said.

"Oh, Christ," Rose muttered under her breath while the Doctor gave him a stunned look.

"Um...that wasn't me. I didn't invade India."

"No, but England did. They invaded my country and took it over."

"Yes, well, we're not there anymore," the Doctor said.

"I know I'm just saying," Suri said with a shrug. "So, where are you going? Up to First Church for Friday Night Alive?"

"Uh, no, we're taking the trolley to Bricktown," the Doctor said.

Suri snorted.

"Fuck that, come with me to First Church and meet Mary," he said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Mary?" the Doctor said.

"She runs the bible study. You listen to it and get a free meal. Wanna come?"

The Doctor and Rose glanced at each other.

"No," Rose mouthed to him after she turned so Suri couldn't see her mouth.

"Come on, we can kill some time by getting something to drink," Suri said, tugging on the Doctor's sleeve.

"I think you've had enough to drink, mate," Rose muttered under her breath.

"Come on, you have to meet Mary, she's lovely," Suri pleaded. "Come with me to First Church."

The Doctor sighed.

"What time is this bible study thing?" he asked.

"You gotta be there by 6:10 but we can kill time by doing something else."

The Doctor checked his watch and noticed it was 4:30.

"How long is it?" the Doctor asked him.

Suri shrugged.

"Maybe till 7:30 or 8 tonight?" he said.

"No," Rose mouthed to him.

The Doctor held up a finger and led Rose out of his earshot.

"Doctor, I haven't been to church since I was small and had to go to a cousin's wedding," she said. "I don't go to church and neither do you."

"Yeah, but it might be interesting."

"Doctor, he's drunk. You wanna go to bible study with a man who's completely sloshed?"

"Look, let's humor the bloke and meet this Mary of his because I have a feeling he might keep on if we don't. If it gets out at 8, we can go ahead and go to Bricktown and ride the boats."

"Okay, what do we do until 6 then?" Rose said.

"The bombing memorial is up the street. We can take a look at that and then come back later and see the chairs in the dark. Is that okay?"

"I don't know why I'm agreeing to this but I know you love mingling with people so I'll go if you're by my side."

"Why wouldn't I be at your side? Besides, you and I can have a giggle at anything, right?"

"Right," Rose said, smiling.

The Doctor playfully punched his arm before taking her hand and walking back towards Suri.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"The Bombing Memorial?" Suri said, making a face as the Doctor and Rose went up a hill towards it. "Why would you want to see that?"

"Because we've never seen it before," the Doctor said to him. "We just got here this morning."

"You homeless?" Suri asked.

"In a manner of speaking," the Doctor said. "We're travelers."

"You got a place to sleep?" Suri asked.

"Not really," the Doctor said.

"Oh, you can come and sleep in the parking garage by the bus station. That's where I sleep. I'm homeless too."

"Why am I not surprised?" Rose muttered under her breath.

When they reached the top of the hill, they saw the memorial across the street. Suri followed them while they walked across the street. There was a concrete wall that took up a whole block. On the street they were on was a chainlink fence with mementos on it. The Doctor held Rose's hand while they followed the fence down a hill towards the entrance to the memorial. On the fence were trinkets, plush animals, dolls and photos of some of the victims. They paused by a wreath that had a photo of one of the victims inside it. Rose stared at the young woman sadly and shook her head.

"So tragic," she said to the Doctor.

"Yeah, it was," Suri said loudly as he stood behind her. "There was a huge explosion and everything shook and glass broke all over the city.'

The Doctor bit his lip when he saw the annoyed look on Rose's face. She glanced at the Doctor and they walked on with Suri following them. They reached the entrance, a large slate wall that had a door sized opening in it. The black slate had an inscription above the door. Rose stepped back with the Doctor and read it.

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

"That's beautiful," Rose said.

"Yeah, it is," Suri said.

The Doctor patted Rose's shoulder when the annoyed look returned to her face. She buried her annoyance by taking a photo of the inscription and then she and the Doctor went throught the doorway. They went up a rampa and came out by a long rectangular reflecting pool. On the other side of the pool was another gateway with 9:01 etched on it. They turned to look at their gate and saw 9:03 on it.

"What's with the clock times?" Rose asked the Doctor.

The Doctor was about to answer when Suri cut in.

"Those represent the before and after times of the bombing. The bomb went off at 9:02 a.m." he said loudly.

"What he said," the Doctor said, pointing to Suri.

"Ahahahaha, you're funny."

The Doctor grunted when Suri slapped his shoulder hard. Rose sighed angrily and turned with the Doctor towards the chairs that were arranged on the right side of the reflecting pool. the chairs are made of steel with perspex bases that had the names of each of the dead etched on them. Rose's heart ached when she noticed the children's chairs were child sized. She and the Doctor stepped over a chain barrier when they saw others doing the same thing and walked on the grass while they went to look at the chairs up close. The Doctor glanced back and saw to his relief that Suri had stayed on the walkway but was still watching them. Rose glanced back with the Doctor and muttered, "Good, stay there," while they walked.

"I have an idea," the Doctor said softly. "Let's go into the museum, the lady at the library said you have to pay to get in and..."

"He might not have the money?" Rose said.

"Great minds think alike," the Doctor said.

"If we go in, he might leave us alone?" Rose muttered to him.

"Worth a shot, don't you think?"

"Out of my way, Time Boy?" Rose said, pretending to shove him out of the way.

The Doctor chuckled and they headed back for the chain barrier. To Rose's annoyance, Suri walked so he'd be in front of them when they got over the barrier.

"Um, we're going to go into the museum," the Doctor said.

"Why?" Suri said.

"Because we're tourists and we want to. The lady at the library said you have to pay to get in though, wanna come?"

"I...uh...don't have any money. But you could pay my way in."

"Sorry, we only have enough for ourselves, have to get some more money later," Rose said.

"I'll wait out here for you then. Don't forget about First Church."

The Doctor and Rose gave him a polite nod and walked away.

"Where is the museum?" Rose said softly to the Doctor.

"Dunno but I'm glad he can't come in with us," the Doctor said. "Now we can have some peace while we look."

"Exactly."

They found a park ranger and asked where the museum was at. The ranger pointed to a building on the other side of the monument. The Doctor and Rose thanked him and hurried to it before Suri changed his mind.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"At last," Rose said when they went inside the museum.

She looked back and saw Suri hovering around the entrance, looking in at them.

"He's persistant, I give him that," the Doctor said as they walked up to the admission desk. "But maybe he'll be gone by the time we finished with this."

They paid ten dollars each for admission and received a ticket and brochure. On the wall beside the desk was the same mission statement that had been written on the gate. They went around the corner and saw a woman and her two young children waiting by an elevator. A woman sitting on a stool by the elevator indicated for them to get in the queue behind them. They waited about five minutes and then the lady got up from the stool when the elevator opened. They got in with her and she closed the door.

"We are going to start the tour on the third floor," the lady said to them. "The tour will start the morning of April 19th and continue on as the events of that morning unfold. You will go from the bombing to the aftermath to the investigation to the trial of Timothy McVeigh. When the elevator doors open, you'll start at 7:00 am on the morning of April 19th."

The doors opened and everyone stepped out into a large room. On the right side of the room was a large blow up of Oklahoma City with a caption above it that said, A DAY LIKE ANY OTHER DAY. On a little plaque at the side was a listing of the weather forecast for that day that included a chance of severe thunderstorms. The rest of the room had a listing of the businesses and government facilities that had been in the Murrah Building as they headed back towards a set of wooden double doors, they stopped at a huge blow up of a surveillance camera photo from a nearby hotel of the Ryder truck speeding towards the Murrah building five minutes before the bomb went off. Then they walked over to a wooden scale model of all the buildings that were in the area. A woman used a laser pointed to point out the Murrah Building, a Water Resources building that was next to it as well as the Athenian Building. She was telling them that Timothy McVeigh parked the Ryder Truck in front of the Murrah Building and walked off towards his getaway car located three blocks away at the YMCA. The bomb went off when he was halfway there and he continued walking to his car, got in and drove off. While she was talking, Rose glanced up at a large photo behind her and winced. She tapped the Doctor's arm and he looked at her as she pointed to it.

"Says that was taken in the daycare a few days before the bombing," she whispered as she pointed to a photo of three children riding a toy train. "Oh, those poor children."

The Doctor nodded and put his arm around her. The woman finished talking and pointed to a door off to the right.

"You need to stay in here until the presentation finishes," she said to them. "The doors on the other side of the room will open automatically afterwards and then you're free to finish the tour on your own. What you're about to hear is the only known recording of the actual explosion. It was caught on tape that morning from a hearing room in the Water Resources building while a hearing was going on. A man was trying to obtain permission to drill for water on his property. The meeting started at 9 a.m. and two minutes in, you'll hear the bomb go off."

She walked over, opened the door and ushered everyone inside. The room had a long wooden table with a prop tape recorder and microphone. Behind the table was a large monitor that was designed to look like a window. Across from that was a long leather seat that went from one side of the wall to the other. Everyone sat down and the lady closed the door. They heard a recorded announcement that the recording would begin in a moment and then they heard someone shuffling papers and a woman announcing who she was and why they were at the hearing today. They listened while she asked the man for his name and how to spell it. Then suddenly, they heard a tremendous explosion in the background and the lights dimmed as photographs of the 168 people who died flashed on the monitor, as the explosion died down, the photos dimmed and while they heard the yells and screams, the doors on the other side of the room opened and everyone got up and went out. Just beyond the door, a TV was mounted above them with a news broadcast of the aftermath. Everyone stood there for a moment listening to a Channel 9 reporter talking while a helicopter showed footage of the still smoking building.

"At this time, we don't know what happened," a lady reporter was saying while they watched the footage, "there has been an explosion at the Murrah Building downtown but we're not sure what caused it."

They watched until the looped footage began again and then they moved on. Next was some of the rubble and devastation that blast caused including a little plaque above them on a ceiling beam that pointed out the beam had suffered damage from the blast and they could see pitted areas and cracks from it. They moved into a small room where there were several photos on the wall of the destroyed building and in the room were several rectangular pillars that held artifacts recovered from the rubble. They moved to the first one and looked through Perspex at someone's broken coffee cup. The information card beside it named the owner of the item and whether or not they survived. In another display was someone's broken watch that had stopped at 9:02 a.m. and in another one was someone's attaché case. Rose felt a lump come to her throat when she walked to the next one, looked in and saw a toddler's pink sandal. The info card beside it said the owner had died that day and Rose felt a wave of emotion wash over her while she thought of the photo of the happy children on the train. While she looked, she felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over her shoulder at the Doctor who had a concerned look on her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, just…the little child that wore this shoe died and I was just thinking of that photo from the daycare and the laughing children. How can anyone be so heartless and kill innocent people and innocent children?"

"He thought he was justified in doing it," the Doctor said, coming up behind her. "Most terrorists and tyrants have their excuses for doing things like this. He thought he was in the right and these people suffered for that."

Rose remembered the Doctor explaining to her that some things he could interfere with and some things were fixed events. She asked him if he could have stopped this or if it was a fixed event.

"Fixed event," he said, shaking his head. "And before you ask, 9/11 was also a fixed event. Most monumental world changing events like this are fixed. Believe me; if I could go back and stop this maniac from doing this, I would because this upsets me as deeply as it does you."

Rose squeezed his hand and they moved on into the next room. This one had a small theater in the center of it surrounded by more artifacts. The people in the film were survivors talking about their experiences. Rose and the Doctor scooted in at the back of the theater and listened. Rose got another lump when she listened to one lady talking about being in a board meeting when the bomb went off.

"I was at the head of the table in a meeting with eight other people," she was saying. "The bomb went off and those eight people literally disappeared in front of me. I was the only one who survived."

"God," Rose whispered while the Doctor squeezed her shoulder.

They watched footage of people running around, frantically asking about their children and loved ones and then they listened to an ATF agent who became trapped on the ninth floor and found a tape recorder. They played the audio of the tape while he walked around recording what he was seeing. They then showed footage of him holding a large cardboard sign out a window indicating he was ATF and he was trapped on the ninth floor. Rose felt the Doctor tap her shoulder. She looked at him and he pointed to his left. She looked where he was pointing and saw the sign in a Perspex display case on the wall beside him. Rose watched a bit more but it was starting to make her depressed so she asked the Doctor if they could go ahead and go on and he nodded and took her hand. They looked at the display cases around the theater. One story was about Dana Bradley who had her leg pinned under a heavy beam and they had to amputate it after they couldn't move the beam. The surgical knives in the kit they brought didn't work so the rescuer finally had to amputate the leg with his pocket knife. Dana was with her two children and mother and she was the only survivor. Rose shook her head sadly after reading the story and walked over to the Doctor who was looking at a dress in another display case.

"See this?" he said, pointing to the dress. "This woman survived the blast and her dress has a few rips and tears in it, another woman survived the blast and here's the remains of her outfit," he said, pointing to a tiny plastic bag that held scraps of fabric inside it. "They're making the point that depending on where you were, you got through it with nary a scratch on you or severe injuries. Some goes for the building. See," he said, pointing to some blown up photos beside it. "The front of this office was blown away, yet this suit hanging on the door is still there, same with the books in the bookcase that stayed there while the rest of the room was destroyed. Quirky things like that. It is a bit fascinating when you see photos like this where something only a few feet from the devastation is not even touched. It all comes down to where you were standing when it happened that determined whether you lived or died that day. I saw that sort of thing all the time during the Time War."

Rose perked up at that. The Doctor rarely discussed the Time War with anyone so she always listened closely when he did.

"Did you see a lot of this sort of thing then?" she prompted as they moved on.

"During the Time War? Oh yes, some of it much, much worse than this. Daleks are completely without sympathy and mercy so you can imagine the casualties whenever they invaded somewhere."

Rose grimaced thinking of how bad it must have been to be in the middle of a Dalek invasion and the bloodbath that happened before they moved on. They walked into another room and paused when they saw a photograph of a firefighter cradling a dying toddler in his arms.

"I know this one, mum showed it to me," Rose said, pointing to the photo. "I was nine when this happened and I remember being upset when I saw it. This photo was everywhere. I remember the little girl died and that made me even more upset."

The Doctor walked up to a reproduction of The Oklahoman newspaper with the photo on the front.

"Her name was Baylee Almon. She was one year old," the Doctor said, stepping back.

He walked over to an info card beside the newspaper.

"She died shortly after the photo was taken and the photo was shown all over the world and she became the symbol of the bombing even though her parents objected to that," he said, glancing at Rose.

They looked around the room and saw a few sculptures and drawings based on the photo. They moved on after that to a room that showed footage of news broadcasts around the world. Rose pointed to one TV when she saw the BBC but the footage was only one for several seconds before it switched to Israeli television. As they moved on through the rooms, they saw a timeline listed on the walls, it showed different days after the bombing, each day they listed the number of the dead which kept growing with each day listed. They walked into another room and watched footage of some of the funerals for the victims.

Then they entered the Hall of Remembrance which was a semicircular room that held photos of all the victims. They were in Perspex window boxes and most of the boxes had a small memento from the family that fit with that person. These were arranged along the back wall in three rows. Below them were wooden stands with silver plaques on them that had the name of the three people above the stand engraved in them. The names went from top to bottom and always in threes. Rose moved to the first stand and saw Miss Baylee Almon was listed first. She looked up and her heart wrenched when she saw a photo of Baylee. She was sitting in the middle of a ball pit, smiling a wide smile while she sat in the colored balls. In front of the photo was a small Muppet Babies Miss Piggy toy that Rose assumed had been hers. Overcome with emotion again, Rose put her hand to her mouth while her eyes misted over. The smiling child was so different from the battered and bloody naked baby nestled in the firefighter's arms in the photo. She felt the Doctor's arm go around her while he came up beside her.

"Baylee," she said, pointing to the photo. "That's her."

She glanced at the Doctor. He kept his face passive but she knew him well enough to know he was seething inside. She could tell from the hard look in his eyes and the tightening of his jaw while he stared at the photo. She looked back at the photo and felt her own anger.

"You know, it's a good job they caught that bastard and executed him because if I'd gotten hold of him I would have killed him with my bare hands," she said.

"Me first."

Rose turned her stunned face to the Doctor who shrugged.

"I'm not a Dalek, Rose. I know I have a problem sometimes with my anger and I can overreact but in this case, if I'd been in the same room with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols I would have had to sit on my hands to keep from beating them to death. And if I had, I wouldn't have regretted it. I can't stand innocents suffering and dying but especially children. This little girl would have been 17 now if he hadn't decided to make his cowardly little statement to the government about Ruby Ridge and Waco. Instead, she's lying in a coffin somewhere and her parents have to make do without her for the rest of their lives. If that thought makes me angry and makes me want to wring those bastard's necks till they drop dead, then sue me."

Rose squeezed his hand, the Doctor squeezed back and they moved to the next grouping. While they read the names, Rose noticed that everyone was listed by their first and last names except for Baylee who was listed as Miss Baylee Almon. She pointed that out to the Doctor.

"Well, she is the most famous person from all this. But I think they may be honoring her for her role in being symbolic of this whole thing," the Doctor said.

When they got to the end of the room and finished looking at the photos, they went downstairs and turned left. This floor was about the investigation and trial of the suspects and at one point they saw what was left of the Ryder Truck including a twisted metal bumper. The bumper and other pieces of the truck were in the middle of one room in a display case that was open all around with a small Perspex barrier. Rose went up to the barrier and folded her arms on it while she stared at the twisted bumper. Then she looked at a twisted front axle and finally some smaller pieces of metal. She looked back at the Doctor who was reading a plaque on the wall that described fingerprint identification.

"You see this?" she said to the Doctor who turned around and looked at the bumper. "I can see how they would be able to pick out the bumper and the axel but this tiny piece here," she said, pointing to a scrap of burnt metal. "You gotta think about how much rubble there was after this and they were able to look at this piece of scrap and say it was the lorry? Amazing."

"That's what they pay forensic investigators to do, Rose. You have seen CSI, right?"

"Yeah, but…it doesn't look like it's from a lorry. Plus, I'm pretty sure other cars got damaged, yeah. But they were able to say this belonged to that lorry."

The Doctor got into her face.

"Be…cause…they're….trained…to…spot…crap…like…that," he said slowly and deliberately while Rose giggled. "They…get…paid…to…do…that…Miss…Fold…The…Clothes…At…Henricks. Are...you…trained…to…identify…scraps…of…metal…at…bombing…sites?"

"No…I'm…not," Rose said, imitating him.

"Well, then quit wondering how they did it if you're not trained. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm reading about fingerprints and how they managed to identify the victims with them or with dental records if there were no fingerprints available."

He started to walk off and then got back in her face.

"By the way, they found someone's missing leg and were never able to match it up with anyone," he said, pointing to the wall. "So someone somewhere lost a leg."

"Ya what?" Rose said in shock, "you mean there was another victim?"

"They found one single solitary leg with no owner, that's all I'm saying," the Doctor said with a shrug as he walked away.

Rose was shocked by that and followed him into the next room where they had courtroom drawings of McVeigh and trial information.

"So…what happened to the rest of the person?" Rose said.

"How should I know? I'm just saying they found a leg that didn't belong to anyone else in the rubble. How it got there I couldn't say especially since it takes a lot to vaporize someone into atoms even if they were standing in the center of the blast. And before you say anything, it didn't say they found bits and chunks of flesh in the rubble that belonged to a 169th person, just a leg and that's all."

Rose was now intrigued by that, wondering what it could mean. The Doctor was now reading an account of McVeigh's execution and she came up beside him.

"So…you don't have any future knowledge of who the leg belongs to?" she said to him.

"You're obsessed with that leg now, aren't you? Sorry I said anything."

"Yeah but what if it's another member of the group that bombed the building?"

"Well, he's either atoms except for his leg or Timothy sawed the chap's leg off and threw it in the rubble when people weren't looking. As for knowing who it is…no, sorry. I know a lot about future events but I can't read about a suspicious leg in the rubble and tell you without a doubt that it belongs to Cyril Scrapbottom who lived at 123 Sap Street in Oklahoma City and he was a swarthy fellow who liked playing Tetris and drinking beer on Tuesday night at 10. Doesn't work that way. Whoever it is will probably remain unidentified forever more. Now…I'm sure there are several sites on the internet who have conspiracy theorists who post their idea of who the leg belongs to so if you're still wondering I suggest that lot. As for me, I wanna get back to this whole account of how Timmy boy died and went to Hell or some such thing like that."

"He went to Hell, eh?" Rose said.

"Yeah, I'm sure the majority of people think he did. I don't believe in Hell but if there really was one, I hope he would be there frying forever more. But if you recall, I destroyed the supposed owner of Hell back on Krop Tor so if he is there, the head honcho isn't around to monitor his torment and he's probably roasting by himself. Anyway, on to the next thing.

They walked into the next room and paused when they saw the remains of a lavatory that was heavily damaged. The area was sealed in with Perspex and there were cinder blocks piled up so you couldn't see the floor. The only thing that indicated it had ever been a lavatory was the half buried remains of one urinal. Rose looked at the rubble and then looked at the Doctor.

"Can I share a thought with you?" she said.

"Go ahead," the Doctor replied.

"This," she said, gesturing to the rubble. "Well…most of this, actually. Does it strike you as a bit…macabre? Their enshrining all this stuff and keeping this lavatory the way it looked when the bomb happened, it's just a bit creepy."

"I never understood this, to be honest. I come from a planet where this would be unheard of. Time Lords aren't emotional like this and they certainly aren't sentimental to the point they build massive monuments and museums to bombing victims or other dead," the Doctor said in a low voice. "Death is a part of life, simple as that. I'm not quite the same as my fellow Time Lords. I do understand the human need to do this but at the same time, people die every day and some die just as gruesomely as they did here but if you keep on erecting monuments eventually you wouldn't have room for the living so you have to decide what to memorialize. And that brings up another point, you memorialize this lot but isn't a little child that's beaten to death by an abusive parent just as important and just as worthy to have a monument in her memory? I do get that it's a place for relatives and friends to come and grieve, but you're right, Rose. You preserve a loo forever more because it got damaged in the blast? This wasn't even the building that got hit."

"I s'pose they're trying to say that even though there were two buildings between this and the Murrah building that it still got hit hard."

"But a loo?" the Doctor said softly. "Was this the worst hit area in the building?"

"That's what I'm saying," Rose said softly. "They ceiling beams were damaged and that was just as good an example of what the blast did to this building as this here. It just seems…strange."

"Strange and unnecessary. Other things in this museum I would say are necessary as a way to teach future generations the meaning of those words on the wall outside, that all who enter here may know the impact of violence. And in many ways, I think they succeeded. But a bog and a pile of breeze blocks behind Perspex is a bit of overkill, I think. What statement is it supposed to make? Damn you, McVeigh, you destroyed our shitter and we can't bear to part with it so we'll wall it up forever in memoriam? It says right here no one got hurt in here anyway. Just one more example of the quirks of human nature, I suppose. Like I said, this sort of thing was unknown on Gallifrey so I share your thought, Rose, believe me."

"Bit of a culture shock then when you came to Earth and saw things like this?" Rose said to him while they moved away.

"Extremely. But I've been here so much that I understand why humans do it but yes, bit jarring for me the first time I saw a monument to the dead."

The next room had 168 gold origami cranes hanging down from the ceiling.

"Cranes represent peace in Japanese culture," the Doctor said to Rose while he pointed up at them. "Hence the gold ones here."

"They're nice," Rose said, looking at them.

She looked around and saw another chainlink fence encased in Perspex on the wall to her left. She walked over and looked at it. An info card described the gifts and tokens that were left on the fences outside and the one inside the display had some plush animals and other trinkets on it to demonstrate.

"This is also odd to me," the Doctor said softly as he came up behind her. "It's not the need to leave something to honor the dead that's odd it's the things they leave. Did you see what was on the fence outside? I get the teddy bears and toys for the children but I saw a Budweiser keychain, in what way does that honor the dead?"

Rose giggled.

"Well, the spirits of the dead might like a pint or two in the afterlife," she said.

"No, I think it's peer pressure more than anything. I think people come to the fence, see a heap of things people leave behind and feel compelled to leave something as well so they go through and pick something they have on their person just to leave it behind, hence the Budweiser keychain. Still, I s'pose it's the thought that counts."

"When Diana died, my mates and I went and saw the heaps of flowers they left at the gates of Buckingham Palace," Rose said.

"I get leaving flowers because that's a traditional funeral thing and flowers are pretty and a fitting tribute and I get the plushie animals for the children. I get the photos of the dead that relatives leave behind and I even get when they light candles and leave them but a Budweiser keychain?"

Rose giggled and patted his arm.

"Humans, we're a strange lot, aren't we?" she said.

"Yes, and I need to put that on a t-shirt and wear it everywhere so everyone can share in that sentiment," he said as they moved on.

They saw a window and looked out. They saw the chairs in the distance. In front of the window was a bench and a piece of wood that had two telephone receivers hanging off either side. The sign on top of the wood indicated that people could pick up the receiver and listen to someone talking about the symbolism of the chairs and other things. Rose picked up a receiver, put it to her ear and gasped and flinched when after a moment of silence, someone yelled in her ear.

"THE CHAIRS YOU SEE OUTSIDE THE WINDOW ARE…"

Rose slammed down the phone into its holder while the Doctor bent over laughing.

"Blimey, these must be for the hearing impaired then. I think you could hear that if you were sitting on the chairs," he said, pointing to them. "Wait, I see a volume control," he said, reaching under the table and turning a knob to adjust the sound.

Rose picked up the receiver and sighed with relief when the sound was turned down in hers. She sat down on the bench and adjusted the volume while the Doctor picked up the other phone and sat down beside her. They stared at the chairs while they listened to a male voice describe the arrangement of the chairs.

"The chairs you see outside the window represent the men, women and children who were killed in the blast," the male voice said. "They are grouped in nine rows to symbolize the nine floors of the building. The first row of chairs represents the ground floor and so on. Each person is placed in a row according to where they worked or were found in the building at the time of the bombing. On the west side are five chairs that are separate from the others. These five individuals died outside the Murrah building. One died in the parking lot, two died in the Water Resources building, one died going into the Athenian and the fifth is Rebecca Anderson. A licensed nurse, Rebecca rushed into the building shortly after the explosion and helped get people out. On her third trip in, debris fell on her head and she staggered outside where she collapsed and was taken to the hospital. She died in the hospital four days later after slipping into a coma."

"Oh my God, did you hear what they just said about Rebecca, the nurse?" Rose said to the Doctor.

"Yes, it was wonderful of her to risk her life doing that and going in without a thought for her own safety," the Doctor said to her. "She was very courageous."

They listened for a moment more and then put the receivers back in the slots. They got up and headed into a corridor that led into a children's area where children could learn about both terrorism around the world and the jobs of police, firemen and rescue workers. They perused it for several minutes and realizing that was the end, they walked to the elevator to go down to the ground floor.

When they came out of the elevator, Rose stopped the Doctor and pointed to the gift shop.

"I know it sounds daft but I wanna get a couple of things, something for Baylee and something for Rebecca to honor them."

"I don't think that's daft, go ahead," he said.

They went in and looked around. There were books, memento books, picture frames and some dolls and plushie animals. Rose walked over to the plushie animals and smiled at a stuffed rescue dog. It looked like a yellow Labrador retriever with a little piece of orange fabric around it's body that said rescue dog on the sides. She chose that for Baylee and walked over to a little shelf. She chose a tiny angel for Rebecca. The Doctor perused the items and watched her so when she was ready, he walked over and joined her. She paid for her purchases and then they walked around the corner to the doors. Rose groaned when they saw Suri sitting on a low wall across from the door. He waved at them and Rose sighed.

"He's gonna drag us to this church or die trying, isn't he?" Rose said to the Doctor as the two of them headed for the door.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"'Bout time you left," Suri said.

"Look," Rose said to him. "We appreciate the invitation but we're not religious and neither of us wants to go to a bible study."

"Yes, but you have to meet Mary," Suri said.

"No, we don't have to meet Mary," the Doctor said. "You heard Rose. Neither of us is religious and we don't want to sit for two hours listening to people drone on about the Bible. If that's your thing, go for it."

"But it's movie night tonight."

"I thought you said it's a bible study thing," Rose said.

"It is but once a month they have a movie night and you watch a movie and eat pizza or hamburgers and have fun. It's movie night tonight so will you come?"

Rose looked at the Doctor.

"Your call," he said to her.

"These films, are they Christian films?" Rose asked Suri.

"No, they show regular movies," Suri said.

"D'ya mind if I do something here first before we get dragged to this church?" Rose said.

"Go ahead," Suri said.

Rose glanced at the Doctor and the two of them headed towards the chairs while Suri followed behind them. When they got to the reflecting pool, she suddenly stopped and the Doctor and Suri stopped with her.

"What is it?" the Doctor said.

"Can we put things on the chairs?" Rose said. "These are meant for certain people and I don't wanna leave them on the fence. Um…"

She looked around and spied the park ranger near the other end of the pool. She got his attention and she and the two men walked over to him.

"Yes, Ma'am?" the ranger said.

"Yeah, I wanna leave these things for certain people. Can I put them on the chairs and not the fence?"

"Yes, that's allowed," the ranger said.

"Thank you," Rose said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I don't mean to snub the others but I was touched by Baylee and Rebecca and wanted to give them both something."

"Most people do the same thing when they hear their stories, you're not alone."

"Thank you, that's all I wanted to know."

"You don't have any other questions? I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have."

"Well…" Rose said, "the pool of water here, was that where the other buildings were at?"

"Yes, they were in this location and up there where the Survivor Tree is at was a parking lot," the ranger said, turning and pointing behind him.

"Survivor Tree?" Rose said.

"Yes, Ma'am, that tree is the only one to survive the blast so it's symbolic of Oklahoma City. The other trees around it were planted afterwards and they're all focused on that elm tree to symbolize the people the came to help the city from the moment of the bombing on. If you go up and look, you can see the blast damage on the trunk."

"And that's blast damage on the front of the building there?" Rose said, pointing to the Journal Record building that faced the Murrah Building.

"Yes, Ma'am, they left it like that to show what happened to the building when the bomb went off."

The Doctor could hear Suri sighing angrily as he stood behind him. He normally liked meeting new people but Suri was rude, abrasive, blunt and drunk and he was extremely pushy. Rose was trying to learn all she could about the bombing and he was trying to force her to go to church and watch a film. Rose, to her credit, didn't see him getting upset or was ignoring him while she asked about the different things contained within the memorial.

"Now if you want to, you can dip your hands in the reflecting pool and leave handprints on the walls of the Gates of Time, if you notice there are some calcium deposits on the lower part of the walls, that's from the thousands of handprints left over the years," the ranger was saying to Rose.

"I think I'll do that as well. Um…but which chairs belong to Rebecca and Baylee?" Rose was asking.

"Rebecca's chair is the first chair in the far row here," the ranger said, pointing to the five chairs on the far right. "Baylee's is near the other side, I believe about the fourth or fifth chair from the left. The children's chairs are half the size of the adults so just look for those."

"Thank you," Rose said.

"Do you need anything else? Brochure?" he said, pulling some out of his trouser pocket.

"No thanks, I got one when I was inside the museum. Oh…this outside part it stays open all the time?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"And the chairs light up after dark?"

"The bases do, they're solar powered and they'll turn on when the sun goes down."

"Thanks, my friend and I want to see the lighted chairs."

"It's beautiful, Ma'am, definitely worth coming back for."

Rose thanked the ranger and he touched his ranger hat and smiled at her before moving on. Rose turned to the Doctor.

"Did you hear him?" she asked as they headed towards the chairs.

"Yeah, we'll come back and see the chairs after it gets dark," the Doctor said.

"After you go to First Church," Suri said.

He held up his hands when the Doctor looked over his shoulder and glared at him.

"Just saying," Suri said. "Go ahead with what you're doing."

When they reached the end of the reflecting pool, Rose handed the stuffed dog and angel to the Doctor. He watched while she put her hands in the shallow pool and then walked over to the Gates of Time. She pressed her hands to the wall for five seconds and when she took her hands away, she could see her handprints. She wiped the excess water on her blue jean shorts. When she got back to the Doctor, she took her things and watched while the Doctor followed her example and put his handprints next to hers. When he was finished, they walked over to the chain and stepped over it. Rose walked to Rebecca's chair. Her name was etched on the base. The Doctor took the stuffed dog and watched while she knelt down beside the chair and put the angel on the seat.

"Hi, Rebecca," she said to the chair. "Just wanted to say thanks for saving lives even though you lost your own doing it. I wanted to give you this angel and I hope you like it."

She stared at the chair for a moment and then looked up at the Doctor.

"I know you might think this is daft, me talking to a chair like this," she said to him. "I just thought I'd say something in the hopes her soul will hear me."

The Doctor smiled fondly at that. He came over and knelt down beside her.

"Rebecca," he said to the chair. "My friend thinks this is daft but to hell with what my friend thinks. I also want to say thanks for what you did and I hope you're at rest. You deserve it. People like you give me hope for the human race. Rest in peace."

Rose smiled at that and he patted her back before they got up. Suri followed them while they walked halfway down to the middle of the chairs. Then the Doctor watched while Rose went up one row. She was about to go up one more when she had a thought.

"No wait, Americans don't count the bottom floor as the ground floor and then the first floor after that. That first row represents the first floor so this second row would be the second floor then," she muttered before she stayed on the second row.

The Doctor followed her and they checked the child sized chairs before they found Baylee.

"Miss Baylee Almon," the Doctor said as he read the base. "They used Miss here as well."

He handed her the stuffed dog. She put it on the tiny seat and knelt down beside the chair. The Doctor did the same and Rose put her hand on the seat while she tried not to get emotional at the thought of what the chair represented. The Doctor, seeing her trying not to cry, put his hand on her back.

"Hey, Baylee," Rose said. "I brought you a little gift. I hope you enjoy it. I hope you're at rest and up in Heaven watching over your mum and dad and loved ones."

She took her hand away from the chair. The Doctor kept his hand on Rose's back while he put his other hand on the chair.

"Good day, Miss Baylee Almon," he said while Rose smiled at that. "You're a courageous little girl and I know that you were and are something more than just a symbol of this tragedy. You are a beautiful little girl and I'm glad that you're still touching people's lives. I hope that people will see what happened to you and be inspired to work for world peace and make the Earth a better, lovlier, more tolerant place for everyone. Rest in peace, poppet. I know your mum and dad are proud of you."

The Doctor looked at Rose and looked back at Suri who was still waiting. He shook with silent laughter when Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Let's get it over with," Rose muttered as she stood with the Doctor.


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

The Doctor and Rose followed Suri to the other Gate of Time and went up some steps to the street. While they were following him, they were quietly discussing what they'd seen, trying to ignore Suri who was staggering along the sidewalk. When they caught sight of First Church, Rose slowed down to get a look at it and the Doctor slowed his pace as well.

"It is beautiful," she said, admiring the brick church when they finally stopped across the street from it.

"Yeah, one of those old brick churches. And look up there," the Doctor said, pointing to a rose shaped stained glass window near the roof. "I think that's the window that got damaged in the blast. Did you see the remains of that window frame when we saw that little girl's shoe?"

"Yeah, I wonder how long it took everyone to recover from the blast. It's amazing that…"

"Are you coming?" Suri called when he reached the street corner and saw they were standing there.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" the Doctor bellowed at him, finally at the end of his patience.

"We have to get inside before the door locks!" Suri yelled.

"Wow, wouldn't that be heartbreaking," Rose muttered.

"Just wait a minute, we still have twenty minutes and Rose was trying to tell me something. We'll be there on time, just wait! Now…what were you going to say?" he said, turning his attention back to Rose.

"I was just thinking that's it's amazing more people weren't killed because you have to figure in breaking and flying glass shards from all this," Rose said as she and the Doctor started moving again.

"I agree," the Doctor said, following Suri who turned the corner and went around the side of the church. "A lot of people were lucky that day."

"Well, there were the five who died outside the building, but only five which is amazing," Rose said.

"Well, four actually, Rebecca technically died inside the building when the debris fell on her."

"That's right. But everyone else that died was, what, within the car park or in those other buildings between it and the Journal Record building, yeah? I mean, as big as the blast was…"

They crossed the road, turned the corner of the church and Rose sighed angrily when Suri was at the other corner waiting for them.

"We'll lose him tonight, Rose, when we go to Bricktown and go on the boat ride, go on with what you were saying," the Doctor said when Rose glowered at Suri.

"Anyway…" Rose said, turning her attention back to the Doctor, "I wonder how long it took the city to recover from all this, must have taken ages. It took awhile for New York to clean up after 9/11. Oh look, that's a pretty stained glass window too," Rose said, slowing down and pointing up to a stained glass window on the side of the building.

The Doctor stopped with her and waited while Rose got out her camera. He glanced at Suri and noticed he was angry. Rose snorted when the Doctor told her about him being angry.

"Why do you think I stopped?" she muttered to the Doctor. "I'm gonna drag my feet as much as I can and piss him off in the meantime."

"That's my girl," the Doctor said while Rose chuckled.

She took a picture of the window and then took a picture of the Doctor in front of the steps leading up to two sets of glass double doors. Then Rose took the Doctor's hand and they resumed their conversation while they walked to the end of the building and turned the corner. They were in the parking lot and they followed Suri to a set of concrete stairs that went up to the main entrance of the church.

"Wow, this is a big church, it looks smaller from the front," Rose said to the Doctor.

"I think because this is a newer section. It looks more modern," the Doctor said to her while they climbed the steps. "The front section looks like it was built in the early 1900's."

Rose nodded. They walked along the sidewalk to a set of white steel double doors on the side of the building by the main entrance. Suri opened the door and waited.

"He's just gonna make damn sure we go inside," the Doctor muttered to Rose while she giggled softly.

"Blast, I was all ready to run as soon as he went inside," Rose muttered to him.

"Actually, that was my plan, I thought of it first," the Doctor muttered back while Rose giggled.

They walked inside with Suri and looked around. They were in the music room and there were tables set up in two rows with black plastic chairs. Another table beside them had napkins, Styrofoam cups, and a dispenser for water or ice tea. Beside that was a large bowl of ice with a scoop and some plastic silverware, salt, pepper and sugar packets. A table next to it was empty. In the front was a flat screen TV and DVD player on a stand. They saw two empty chairs side by side at the table in the front row nearest the empty table and walked to it. There were about twenty other people inside the room, most of them looked a bit haggard and some looked unkempt. They heard Suri calling for Mary as the Doctor and Rose sat down and then they saw him coming up to them with a short, thin Caucasian woman. She was in her early forties and had shoulder length brown hair.

"This is John and Rose," Suri said, pointing to them. "They just arrived in Oklahoma City today. This is Mary."

The Doctor and Rose stood up and shook hands with Mary.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Mary. Welcome to Friday Night Alive," she said in a pleasant slightly high-pitched voice. "We're having a movie night tonight so get something to drink and the food will be out shortly."

The Doctor nodded and Mary went to make the rounds and greet everyone else. Suri sat down beside Rose and watched while the Doctor offered to get the drinks.

"Tea or water?" he asked her.

"Um," Rose said, looking back at the dispensers. "Water, not that fond of cold tea."

"Be back in a jiff," the Doctor said, getting up.

"Are you married to him?" Suri asked Rose when the Doctor went to the dispensers.

"No," Rose said to him.

"Lovers?"

Rose said nothing and looked back at the Doctor who was scooping some ice into their cups.

"I said, are you lovers?" Suri said.

"I'd rather not say, alright?" Rose said angrily.

"Alright, geez, don't need to get so fucking defensive," Suri said.

"Well, what we are is mine and his own business, yeah?" Rose said.

"Alright, geez," Suri muttered.

The Doctor finished getting them water and turned back to the table. He noticed Rose's pissed off look and he leaned in as he sat the glasses on the table.

"Problem?" he asked.

"No, no problem," Rose said softly.

"I was just asking if you two were lovers," Suri said to him.

"And I said it was none of his business and he got cross with me."

"That's right, it's not your business," the Doctor said, sitting down beside Rose.

"Fine, I won't ask again," Suri said angrily.

Rose looked at the Doctor and rolled her eyes while the Doctor gave her an amused grin. Suri watched while the two of them leaned their heads in close and began to talk in hushed whispers. He noticed how into each other they were and how they gazed into each other's eyes while they talked and snorted softly.

"Yeah, you're lovers," he muttered under his breath. "Anyone can see that."

While they were talking, Mary came up to Suri and gave him a hug.

"So, Suri, how have you been?" she asked him.

"I just got out of jail again," Suri said.

Hearing this, the Doctor and Rose fell silent and stared at each other while they listened.

"Again?" Mary said in exasperation, "what did you do this time?"

"It wasn't my fault, this jackass hit me and I beat the crap outta him and the police take me away when he was the one who started it."

"Suri, you need to start coming to the anger management classes," Mary said.

"I will but this wasn't anger management, I was defending myself."

The Doctor grinned and mimed hitting Rose on the chin. Rose bit her lip to keep from laughing. She leaned into his ear.

"You hit me, I need to defend myself so watch it, I'm gonna kick your arse across this room," she whispered to him.

She leaned back up and giggled at the feigned look of fear on the Doctor's face. Mary walked away and they watched while she walked over and hugged an elderly homeless man.

"I do have an anger problem," Suri said to the Doctor and Rose. "But it wasn't about that. I was minding my own business and this asshole punches me. I could have killed him though, I'm a third degree black belt in karate and my hands are registered because they're considered deadly weapons."

"I'm a twelfth degree black belt in Venusian Aikido and my whole body is a deadly weapon," the Doctor said to him.

Rose held her laughter in when she noticed the confused look on Suri's face.

"There's no such thing as twelve degree black belts or….what was it?"

"Venusian Aikido."

"Never heard of it," Suri said.

"Not many people have, it's a very secret and deadly art and I'm an expert at it."

"Well, I can kick your ass before you can blink."

Rose sighed at that and shook her head.

"Look, you don't know him like I do and you don't wanna get in a fight with him, trust me."

"I'm not afraid of your boyfriend," Suri said. "This guy who punched me, I beat the shit outta him with a baseball bat two weeks ago because he stole my stuff."

"And you're surprised he came up and punched you back?" the Doctor said.

"No, I figured he'd try something but I taught him another lesson and he ended up in the hospital."

"And you ended up in prison."

"Jail. I went to jail, I've never been to prison," Suri said defensively.

"What's the difference?" Rose said.

"There's a hell of a lot of difference between jail and prison," Suri said.

"Well, I've never been to either," Rose said smugly. "So, you'll have to pardon my ignorance."

"I've been to jail," the Doctor said. "Numerous times. Wasn't on Earth though."

Rose snickered at the odd look on Suri's face.

"Yeah, that's funny," Suri said dryly.

"Seriously and let me tell you, you need to be tough to survive the Alpha Centauri prison. It's a nightmare."

Suri rolled his eyes and the Doctor winked at Rose when she looked at him and grinned. Suri was about to say something else to him when suddenly…

"G! Hey, G!"

"Oh no," Rose muttered when G came in the room and called out to Suri.

"G, haven't seen you in awhile," G said, stumbling over to him.

"Yeah, been in jail," Suri said.

"Ah man, you were in jail, G?"

"Yeah, the cops threw me in jail for defending myself, bunch of Nazis!" Suri said.

"I hear that. Rose G!" G said, turning his attention to her.

Rose plastered a smile on her face when he shook her hand.

"You and G come up here for the food?" G said, pointing to the Doctor.

"Yeah, me and…G…came up here for the food," Rose said while the Doctor turned his head to hide his laughter.

"Alright! Rose G, getting some food!" G said, swaying back and forth. "Hey, G!" he said, calling to someone at the other table. "How's it goin', G?"

The Doctor laughed silently while Rose shook her head and rolled her eyes. Both of them blinked when a young black woman went past their table. She had a blue jean hat and she'd shoved the brim down until it was past her eyes but she still managed to walk without bumping into things.

"How the hell does she see where she's goin'?" Rose whispered in the Doctor's ear.

The Doctor grinned and shrugged. Everyone fell silent when Mary came up to the front.

"Okay, we're going to get started in a minute but first I want to say something and then we'll have prayer," Mary said. "I know that things are tough and it's tough being out on the streets but God is watching over all of you and loves you and will see you through, no matter what happens. It's a hard life when you're homeless but Jesus will be there with you, so trust in him. And now, let's bow our heads for prayer."

The Doctor and Rose sat in a respectful silence while Suri and most of the other people bowed their heads while Mary prayed. When they were finished, a side door opened and a man brought in a metal trolley loaded with pizza boxes. On the lower shelf was a huge bowl of salad and dressing and a tray filled with assorted cookies. The Doctor and Rose noticed everyone was beginning to line up by the first table so the Doctor took Rose's hand and they stood up and joined the queue.


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

While they stood in the queue, the man brought out another trolley and set a cooler on top of it that had cans of several different brands of pop in ice. He also set out a small jar of dried hot peppers for the pizza along with a can of parmesan cheese. When the Doctor and Rose got to the pizza, they looked at the choices. They had cheese, pepperoni and sausage. Rose chose cheese and received two slices while the Doctor got two slices of pepperoni. The Doctor refused the salad while Rose got a bit of it and they looked over the cookies before the Doctor picked up some small tongs and got one chocolate chip cookie. Rose did the same and put a bit of parmesan cheese on her salad along with a bit of ranch dressing. The Doctor put some of the hot peppers on his pizza with a bit of parmesan cheese. They looked in the cooler, pull out two Cokes and went back to their seats.

"No salad for you?" Rose said to him.

"No! Salads are for sissies," the Doctor said.

Rose pulled a bit of sliced tomato out of her salad and fed it to him. The Doctor grinned and ate it. Rose tried her pizza.

"Mmm, this is good," she said after taking a bite.

The Doctor tried his and licked his lips after swallowing a bite.

"Okay, this night might not be a total loss," he whispered to Rose while she nodded in agreement.

When everyone got their food and sat back down, Mary started the film. Rose chewed her pizza while the film began. She raised her eyebrow when she saw an American football team playing on screen.

"Oh no, I know nothing about American football," Rose muttered to the Doctor. "I hope the whole film isn't about this. And I've never heard of Facing The Giants. You?"

The Doctor shook his head. They ate their food while they watched the movie. But in the first five minutes, Rose began to suspect it was a Christian film when the main character came home and began a religious discussion with his wife.

"Oh Lord, here we go," Rose muttered while the Doctor sniggered. "Thought it wasn't supposed to be a Christian film."

"And it's about American football too," the Doctor pointed out.

"I know, don't remind me," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

While she watched, she noticed a man and woman tried to leave early and she did a double take when Mary told them they had to stay. She looked at the Doctor.

"D'ya hear that? She's not letting them leave," Rose whispered to the Doctor. "Are we prisoners here?"

"We must watch the Christian film," the Doctor muttered with a blank look on his face. "We must believe."

Rose snickered and swatted his arm. She turned her attention back to the film but quickly got bored with it. The main character was a coach who came to a small town high school and was trying to turn around the losing football team. She frowned when they showed a scene of the coach preaching to the players during practice.

"Isn't that forbidden?" Rose muttered to the Doctor. "Separation of church and state in America, right? And no prayer in school?"

"This is a Christian film, we must believe," the Doctor said in a robotic voice.

Rose giggled and poked his arm. The Doctor poked her arm back and winked as he took a bite of his cookie. He finished his food and went back for a couple more slices of pizza but Rose pushed her empty plate away and sipped her water. She watched the film and looked at the Doctor who was finishing putting some pizza on his plate. She pointed to the film when he turned and caught her eye.

"What now?" the Doctor asked, sitting back down.

"Okay, there was one kid on his team who wasn't a Christian and told him that and the coach prayed for a revival and suddenly this kid believes and now the whole team is sitting there during practice talking about Jesus to each other. On a scale of one to ten, how believable is that?"

"Rose, Rose, Rose, don't you know where you are?" the Doctor muttered to her. "You're smack dab on the belt buckle of the Bible belt of the United States of America. You notice how no one else in here is making comments about this film like you are. It's because you're in Jesusville, my dear."

"And I'm the one that pointed to Oklahoma on the map."

"Yup, it's your fault we're here," the Doctor said, poking her arm repeatedly. "Wait…"

He pointed to Mary who went out the side door into the other room.

"Now!" the Doctor said, pointing to the front door.

"Hey!" Suri said as the Doctor and Rose leapt up and hurried to the door.

They burst outside and ran across the parking lot laughing.

"FREE!" Rose yelled while the Doctor laughed.

"Yes! Free to go to Bricktown and have some good old fashioned fun!" the Doctor yelled as they hurried down the stairs and across the other section of the parking lot.

Rose looked back over her shoulder and laughed.

"Yes! And that nutjob didn't follow us! We're free of him as well!" she yelled.

"Whoohoo!" the Doctor howled while Rose laughed.

They rounded the corner of the church and sprinted across the street, slowing down when they were by the memorial.

"Phew," the Doctor said as they slowed down and walked by the outer wall of the memorial. "Now…let's go back to the bus stop and wait for the trolley."

As they passed by the memorial, they suddenly heard running water. They stopped by some steps going up from the sidewalk and saw a waterfall on the second level. The Doctor and Rose climbed up and walked over to it. There was a large granite pool on the third level and the water was flowing down a granite wall into some grates at the base of the waterfall. Rose took a photo of it and took one of the Doctor standing beside it. They then went up to the next level and gazed at the pool before Rose walked over to the far side where there was a brass and glass barrier wall. She leaned over it and saw they were at the back of the chairs' area. The Doctor came up beside her and looked down and then looked out over the memorial.

"No one's pinched your gifts to Rebecca and Baylee," he said, pointing to their chairs.

"Good, I hope they stay there," Rose said.

"Well, let's get outta here before Suri starts a hunt for us," the Doctor said.

The two of them turned and walked back down to street level. They walked back down the hill to the bus station. Rose walked over to the bus station so she could use the restroom and grunted when she pulled on the door and it didn't open. She looked inside and saw only a janitor.

"Wait, they're closed?" Rose said as the Doctor walked up to her.

The Doctor checked his watch.

"It's just after 7," he said to her.

Rose did a double take. She rapped on the glass and got the janitor's attention.

"Excuse me, have the buses stopped running?" Rose said.

"Yes, we're closed for the night."

"What about the trolley?" the Doctor said.

"It runs till 11. You can catch it over there," he said, pointing to the bus bay across from the station.

They thanked him and walked across.

"The buses stop running by 7 at night?" Rose said to the Doctor. "What if people want to do something?"

"I s'pose they better do it before 7 p.m. then," the Doctor said as they sat down on the metal seats.

The Doctor glanced at his TARDIS while they sat. Satisfied that it was alright, he let out a yawn and put his arm around Rose while they waited for the trolley. The air was still warm and there was a slight beading of sweat on Rose's brow but the sun was beginning to go down and she didn't look like she was in too much discomfort so he relaxed. He was concerned more for her than for himself since he could cope with everything except the most extreme of temperatures but he didn't want Rose getting heat stroke so he made sure she wasn't overheating in the 100 degree plus temperatures. He glanced back when he heard a rumbling and he and Rose saw the trolley turning the corner. They stood up and walked to the curb while the trolley slowed down and stopped for them. The doors opened out and they climbed three steps up inside it. There were a couple of wooden benches by the door with plump red cushions on them. Then a few seats that faced the driver and in the back were two more benches on the side beside a second door and in the very back was a bench that curved around the back of the trolley. The Doctor and Rose sat down on the first bench and the driver closed the door and went on. The Doctor looked up and saw some brochure holders beside him. He saw one that had a map of Oklahoma City and he pulled it open and he and Rose held it while they studied the map. The map was an arial view of downtown Oklahoma City with word balloons pointing to different things.

"There's the canal ride," Rose said, pointing to it on the map. "Um…Sir, can you let us off at the canal ride?" she called to the driver.

"Yup," the driver said.

Rose thanked him and turned her attention back to the map.

"Hey, Toby Keith has a restaurant," she said, pointing to one of the word balloons.

"Toby Keith's I Love This Bar and Grill, hmmm," the Doctor said. "Wonder what it's like?"

"You just had four pieces of pizza," Rose said to him.

"I know but I'm talking about in future we could go back," the Doctor said.

He glanced up to see where they were at and leaned up to see out the front window. They were heading towards a bridge that had Bricktown across it in large letters. The driver pulled a cord and rang a bell as they went through the bridge. Rose leaned up with him and then they settled back while they watched him go by a U-Haul distribution center.

"Hey, cinema," the Doctor said as they drove by the next thing. "We could go see something that isn't overtly Christian."

"I don't know what's playing right now," Rose said.

"Well, we could walk by it and check. Besides there are a lot of shops around it that we could have a dekko at."

They looked behind them and saw a large baseball park.

"Who is the local team here?" Rose asked the driver.

"The Redhawks," he called to her.

"Do you wanna watch a game while we're here?" the Doctor asked her.

"When do they play?" Rose asked the driver.

"Tonight and tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" the Doctor asked her.

"That sounds good, I wouldn't mind going to a baseball game, at least I know something about that," Rose said.

The driver turned a corner up by a hotel and went under an overpass to a parking lot. He went across it, turned back and went by a large store.

"Bass Pro," the Doctor said, reading the sign above the entrance while the driver slowed the trolley down and stopped in front of it. The Doctor folded the map and put it in his pocket while the driver waited a moment for passengers. He glanced up at the other brochures and pulled down one that was filled with coupons. Rose laid her head on his shoulder and looked through it with him while the driver closed the door and went on. The driver turned right and went about a block and turned right again. They watched while he drove past half finished overpasses.

"Apparently, they're building a new motorway here," the Doctor said as they looked out the window.

The driver drove towards a bridge and the Doctor saw a small sign that said Oklahoma River on it and a larger sign beside it that said Regatta Park.

"What's Regatta Park?" the Doctor asked the driver.

"You can rent boats and go down the Oklahoma River here."

"Ooo, we could do that," the Doctor said to Rose. "Lovely little boat ride on the river."

"Yeah, that sounds good," Rose said as the driver turned the trolley around in the parking lot and went back the way he came.

The Doctor was confused. The driver was now going back the same way he came and he wondered where the canal ride was.

"Excuse me, is the canal ride back at Regatta Park?" he asked the driver.

"No, it's by the ballpark. I turn right when we get to it and the canal ride is across from it."

"Okay, good."

They followed the same route back to the ballpark and then the driver turned right at the corner of the ballpark. The Doctor pointed to several horse and carriages that were lined up along the curb.

"Gotta check those out as well," the Doctor said to Rose as they went past.

The trolley stopped at a small bus shelter, a metal chair that had a wooden structure built over it. Over the chair were lighted words that said Ballpark and Canal.

"We're here," the driver said to him. "Canal is across the street."

The Doctor and Rose thanked him and got out. The driver went on and they hurried across the street to a small hut where a woman was selling tickets for the ride. They paid 6.50 apiece and went down stairs to a lower level. When they were on the lower level, they saw a sign indicating the line for the canal ride started here and they stood beside it while they looked around.

"Hey, they have a Hooters," the Doctor said, pointing to a restaurant on street level.

"Yeah, they have a Coyote Ugly pub next to it," Rose said, pointing to it.

"Is that significant?" the Doctor said to her.

"You've never seen the film, Coyote Ugly?"

The Doctor shook his head.

"The film's about a bar where the women get up on the counter and dance around while the men watch them. They act all sexy and stuff while they serve drinks. I'm guessing they do that here as well," she said, pointing to the entrance.

"Good job Jack isn't here, we'd never get him out of the place," the Doctor said while Rose giggled. "But never mind that, we could go to Hooters though and watch the owls. I like owls."

"Um…Doctor, Hooters isn't about owls," Rose said.

"Oh? What is it about?" the Doctor said innocently.

Rose stared at his face and saw his muscles quiver while he tried not to laugh.

"You know what Hooters is," she said, swatting his arm.

"Yes, I do. Another place we'd never get Jack away from."

"Tell me about it," Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Although…it might be funny seeing you dressed in one of those skimpy outfits the women wear."

"How'd you know about that?"

"I'm 902 years old, Rose; I have been around and seen things. I'm not that thick," the Doctor said while she giggled.

"Well, you can dream about me dressing all slutty like they do but you won't ever see it."

"Challenge accepted."

"I'm sorry?" Rose said.

"I won't ever see you in a Hooters outfit, Challenge accepted then. I love a challenge."

"You better not make me pass out because if I do and and I wake up and I'm in one of their outfits, you'll be in big trouble!"

"There's no way you can stop me," the Doctor said airily. "I'm a black belt in Venusian Aikido. My hands are registered because they're deadly weapons."

"Ugh, don't start quoting him, okay? I don't even wanna think about that drunken git," she said while he giggled.

They looked at the canal when a bright yellow pontoon boat came through a bridge and headed towards the dock. They waited until it stopped and the passengers in the boat left before the two of them got inside it.


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

While they waited for the ride to start, several people got in after them. There was a couple of teenagers and a man and woman with a son and daughter. The boat had little seats along the side and everyone sat on those. The driver of the boat stood at the front in front of a metal wheel. Another man stood by the dock where the boat had been roped to a metal pole. Another elderly couple got on and then the driver signaled that it was time. The other man pulled the looped rope off the pole and threw it on the back of the boat while the driver drove off towards a small footbridge.

"Good evening, everyone," the driver said, turning to face them. "My name is Mark and I'll be your driver for this wonderful little ride. Hope you enjoy it because I'm not even supposed to be here. I just jumped on the boat and pretended to be the captain because I've always wanted to do this."

He winked while everyone laughed.

"Just kidding, folks. I've had a few years experience doing this so there's no danger of us hitting the sides or sinking. And speaking of hitting the sides, hold on because this is very narrow."

"I'll say," Rose said to the Doctor when they went through the bridge with only inches to spare on either side of the pillars.

"See, no worries, folks, I'm an expert at this," the driver said, steering the wheel.

The canal went through a larger bridge and wound around by the cinema. The Doctor pointed when they were turning a corner.

"Hey a bowling center's down here, we could do that as well," he said to Rose as they passed by it.

They went under another footbridge by the cinema and headed on.

"Now this is Toby Keith's place," the driver said while he drove past the restaurant. "Good eating in there and if anyone here's a veteran, show some proof of it and you get a free cheeseburger and Coke."

"I'm a veteran of the Time War, does that count?" the Doctor muttered to Rose.

"I have a feeling it wouldn't," Rose muttered back.

"Now I have a story about this section of the canal," Mark said, pointing to the water while he drove. "Seems that several years ago, some idiot drove his truck into the canal on a dare. When the police rescued him, he told them that his friend dared him to jump the canal and apparently he lost."

"Wasn't Suri, was it?"

Rose giggled and put her hand over her mouth when the Doctor muttered that in her ear.

"Yeah, I can see him doing that," Rose muttered back to the Doctor.

They rounded another corner and Mark pointed out Bass Pro while they drove past it. The Doctor leaned into Rose's ear.

"We paid 6.50 for this, this is boring," he muttered to Rose.

Rose nodded emphatically as they went under a wooden footbridge.

"Good job we have a lot of money for things like this," she muttered to him.

They went by the parking lot behind Bass Pro and then they saw some large bronze statues of people riding horses and sitting in covered wagons.

"These statues represent the great land run of 1889 when the government opened up surplus lands that were taken from the Indians for sale and people hurried to stake a claim for themselves. For those of you who aren't from around here, Oklahoma's nickname, The Sooner State, comes from the fact that some of these people snuck onto the land before the official start of the run and staked their claims before anyone else."

"So basically, the state is named after queue jumpers."

Rose snickered and nodded when the Doctor whispered that in her ear. They went past the statues, turned around in a little pond of water at the end of it and headed back. Then they basically went back the way they came until they finally came to a stop at the dock.

"That was rubbish," Rose said angrily when they got out of the boat and walked away. "Boring as hell and the only thing not a shop were those statues. Like I said, I'm glad we have money because that was a waste of time."

By now, the sun had set and they walked up the stairs. The Doctor pointed to the horse and carriages.

"Wanna ask how much they are?" he asked her.

She nodded and they hurried across the street. They found one of the drivers and asked about the price and she told them it was 13 dollars apiece.

"Where do you go?" she asked the lady.

"Around Bricktown and the downtown area," she said. "Would you like me to take you?"

"Um…" Rose said, glancing at the Doctor, "maybe another time."

The lady nodded and they walked away from her.

"Sorry, after that canal ride, I'm hesitant to spend 26 dollars on a boring carriage ride, not when we can just walk around and look."

"I agree," the Doctor said. "That canal ride was pants; at least have animatronic things jumping out at us or robotic sharks menacing the boat. Don't just have a man telling us about an idiot crashing his car in the water. I'm glad it wasn't more than 6.50 because I would have complained to someone. Anyway, come on, we can walk around and give ourselves a tour."

They walked around the downtown area and saw a couple of sweet shops and a jazz club and the Spaghetti Warehouse and a few bars.

"This must be where most of the restaurants and shops are located," the Doctor said to Rose while they walked. "At least it's handy having all this in one area."

They paused when they saw The Melting Pot.

"Hey, a fondue restaurant, that might be worth a look at some point," the Doctor said to Rose.

"Mum used to have people over for fondue parties back when she was young," Rose said. "I've never had fondue though."

"Might be worth it then, fondue is delicious. Especially chocolate fondue with strawberries, num, num, num."

Rose laughed at that and took his hand. They walked out of Bricktown and passed by the Ford Center, a large stadium.

"There's their sports arena," Rose said, pointing up to it while they passed by.

They reached the end of the street and looked across the road at a waterfall cascading off a bunch of rocks. Lights were in the water under it, lighting it up. They hurried across and Rose pointed to a sign at the corner of the street.

"This is Myriad Gardens, that park we wanted to see," she said to him.

They followed a concrete footpath past the waterfall and into the park. There were rolling hills and trees on either side of them along with wooden benches. They passed by another granite pool with water that sloshed off the side of it and cascaded down the ridged sides into a lighted moat below. Then Rose stopped the Doctor and pointed to a large domed glass structure that had colored lights running through it. Rainbow colors were showing through the glass and Rose got a photo of it.

"What is it, d'ya think?" Rose asked while they admired it.

"Probably a slaughterhouse and they shine the rainbow colors so rubes will go, oh, how pretty, let's go inside and see the rainbow and then the slaughter begins when the doors slam shut and they can't get out."

"You know, your thought processes scare me sometimes," Rose said while the Doctor giggled.

"And then," the Doctor said while they walked towards it. "They turn the rubes into food because as we all know Soylent Green is people, it's peeeeeople!"

Rose laughed while the Doctor poked her arm. They walked up to the entrance on the side of it and the Doctor rapped on the glass door to get a security guard's attention.

"Whatever this is, it's another 6.50 to get in," Rose said to the Doctor while the guard came to the door.

"Yes?" the guard said through the door.

"What is this place?" the Doctor said.

"Greenhouse. You pay admission and come inside to look at plants and flowers."

"Hell no, not for 6.50," Rose muttered to the Doctor.

"Thanks," the Doctor said, waving at the guard before they walked away.

"Right, that's out then," Rose said as they walked across the concrete footbridge.

They stopped halfway across it and leaned over to look at the water below. The stream flowed under the greenhouse and they could see one duck lazily swimming in it. By now, the rainbow colors shifted to all pink and Rose admired it before she and the Doctor completed the walk across the bridge. They paused when they saw a theater stage by the water. The stage was circular and was placed in the water with a moat around it and a small concrete footbridge that went from it to the stadium seating. They saw a wooden structure on the stage that resembled a part of a room but it was deserted.

"Looks like they might be putting on a play down there," the Doctor said, pointing to it. "Pretty place to have a theater, with the water and the greenhouse in the background."

They walked on and noticed that the park was still under construction in some areas. The Doctor stopped Rose and pointed up to a building under construction just outside the park. The building went up about 50 stories and was rounded like a tube. They could hear construction sounds and watched a crane lift something up to the top.

"Wonder what that is?" the Doctor said while they stood and watched the crane go up.

"It's an even bigger slaughterhouse because the greenhouse slaughterhouse is too small for the whole city."

The Doctor chucked and put his arm around her, giving her a hug. Rose smiled and sighed, loving the feel of his body against hers. Then they took each other's hand and headed for the exit.


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

"So, wanna head back to the memorial and see the chairs all lit up?" the Doctor asked Rose.

Rose nodded. The Doctor looked around and spied the library off to their right. They got their bearings and headed that way back to the memorial. On the way, they noticed that everything was closed and Rose stopped and looked around.

"Doctor, do you see anything that's still open?" she said.

"No, it looks like everything's shut for the night. Blimey, no wonder the buses stop running, everything else stops running too."

"What time is it though?"

"Um…almost 9:30."

"And everything's closed? Wow, I've never seen a city shut down like this. This is what you'd expect from a town but…"

They walked on towards the memorial. Suddenly, someone screamed "FUCK YOU!" behind them. Rose jumped and the Doctor spun around to protect her. They saw a homeless man two blocks away, pushing a battered shopping trolley loaded with things. While he walked, he occasionally screamed at the top of his lungs. The Doctor relaxed and walked on with Rose. When they neared the bus station, they noticed a couple of people heading into a parking garage near it.

"That must be the parking garage Suri was talking about," the Doctor said, pointing.

"You're not going to sleep in there, are you?" Rose said to him.

"No, but maybe we can find a little space nearby and sleep out under the stars," the Doctor said.

"Won't the cops find us?"

"Not if we're very clever, which we are, besides I'm not scared of them, my hands are registered deadly weapons."

Rose giggled and examined his right hand while the Doctor gave her a menacing look. She took it and they walked back up the hill to the memorial. They walked down to the gate and entered. Rose's breath was taken away by the sight of the chairs. The bases were now glowing with a bright light that reflected in the reflecting pool.

"Oh my God, this is gorgeous," Rose said, pulling out her camera.

The Doctor followed her around the reflecting pool and when they got to the other side and had a wider view of the chairs, Rose took a couple of photos.

"Beautiful," Rose said to the Doctor. "And look how clear the pond is, you can see everything clearly in it like it's an alternate world down there. And the gates are all lit up. This is much better after dark."

"Wanna go see that Survivor Tree the ranger mentioned?" the Doctor said, pointing up to it.

"Yeah," Rose said.

They walked over to the Journal Record building. The side of it was lit up and they paused for a moment and studied it. The side facing the memorial had bomb damage and the Doctor pointed to some stress fractures that occurred when the building lifted up during the explosion and set back down without falling. The Doctor moved slightly down the building inspecting another set of cracks. Rose stayed near the corner. While she looked at the building, she suddenly sensed someone watching her. She looked over to the low wall opposite the museum entrance and noticed someone was sitting on it. He was young and handsome with bangs that hung down the right side of his face. He was wearing a tweed jacket, white shirt with red bow tie, black trousers and black shoes. He was also wearing a brown cowboy hat and he touched the brim and smiled when Rose caught his eye. Rose waved at him and he nodded and waved back. She looked at the Doctor who was now halfway to the Survivor Tree. She glanced at the man and then followed him.

The tree was on a hill in the middle of a plaza that was surrounded on three sides by low stone wall. A long stone bench was set into the wall on the right side of the wall. They entered and looked at the tree which was being lit by lights in the ground around it. Rose pointed to the trunk which had been blown back halfway up by the force of the blast so that the tree leaned at an odd angle. They walked around the front and Rose pointed to the blackened trunk.

"Blimey, this bomb must have been powerful to do all this," Rose said to the Doctor as she ran her hand up the bark. "You can tell it nearly knocked the top off the tree."

"Yes but it held on," the Doctor said. "And it is a fitting symbol for Oklahoma but you know what, I think it's also represents the human race. You tenacious little apes that keep holding on and surviving and thriving no matter what life throws at you. This tree represents all of you, I think."

Rose smiled at that. She went past the Doctor and walked around the tree, examining it. As she did, she caught sight of the man. He was now halfway to the tree, staring down at the flowers that had been planted along the wall. She paused a moment while she gazed at him. Then the man turned his head and caught her eye and smiled. Rose glanced at the Doctor and felt compelled to walk over to him. The man smiled at her warmly as she walked up.

"Good evening," Rose said.

"Evening," the man said.

"Um…I hate to tell you this but your cowboy hat doesn't go with the rest of your outfit."

"It's a Stetson, Stetsons are cool," he said.

Rose chuckled.

"Um…if you say so. I'm Rose."

"I'm Rory," he said, shaking her hand. "Nice night."

"Yes, it is," Rose said. "My friend and I came here today and we're taking a tour of the city."

"Yeah, I'm here with two friends but they're back at the hotel so I thought I'd do what you're doing. I was told the memorial was beautiful after dark so I walked over here."

"Yeah, me too. It is, actually, we went here earlier but we wanted to see the chairs after dark."

"Oh, is your friend with you?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, he's over here. His name is John," Rose said.

Rory followed behind her while Rose called to the Doctor. The Doctor came out of the opening in the wall and was walking towards her when he suddenly froze. Rose noticed an odd look on his face while he stared at Rory.

"John, this is Rory, he walked up from his hotel to see the memorial," Rose said to the Doctor.

"Pleasure," Rory said, nodding.

"Yeah," the Doctor said giving him a wary look. "Rose, can you excuse us for just a moment."

Rose nodded, wondering what was wrong with the Doctor. She watched while the Doctor beckoned to Rory and Rory followed him back to the tree.

"Huh?" Rose muttered while she watched the Doctor speaking to Rory in a hushed tone.

She noticed they kept glancing at her from time to time. The Doctor nodded while Rory spoke but she couldn't hear what they were saying. They talked for about five minutes before they both walked back to Rose.

"What's going on?" Rose asked.

"Rose, I have a confession," Rory said. "My name isn't Rory. I'm the Doctor; I'm a future version of the Doctor."

Rose's mouth fell open. She looked at her Doctor for confirmation and he nodded.

"You…had an odd look on your face when you first saw him," Rose said to her Doctor.

"It's because I could sense who he was. Time Lords can sense each other, I believe I told you that before, that I can sense other Time Lords in my mind," Ten said, tapping the side of his temple.

"Oh yeah, but…what are you doing here?" she asked Eleven.

"Sightseeing. I landed here with two friends, that part I was truthful about. I remembered that you came here with my other self today so I thought I'd come and say hello," Eleven said. "Your Doctor recognized me as a future version of himself and I was over there by the tree explaining myself."

"Well, the Stetson still doesn't go with your outfit," Rose said.

Ten snickered when Eleven pouted at that.

"We agreed I'd be truthful about who I was but on one condition, I won't tell you which version of the Doctor I am or tell you who I'm traveling with so you won't know future events. If you agree to that, I'd like to walk with you for a bit, is that okay?"

"Sure," Rose said, thrilled to meet another version of the Doctor. "But will your friends mind you being gone?"

"Nah, I will say that they're married and well…they'll amuse themselves somehow, I'm sure," Eleven said. "They'll probably welcome me getting out of their hair for a bit."

"Well, there's really nothing open here, d'ya wanna go back to Bricktown?" Rose said.

"Sounds good to me," Eleven said. "Doctor?" he added, glancing at his younger self.

"It's going on 10:30, we might be able to catch the trolley back if we hurry," the Doctor said, checking his watch. "Come on, let's hurry before we miss it."


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Ten checked his watch all the way down to the bus station.

"Hopefully, we won't be late but if we are, we can always walk there," he said to Eleven and Rose.

When they walked to the bus bay, they could see that there were a few other people sitting in the other bays, talking to each other or sitting alone staring off into space.

"Oh God," Rose said, stopping short.

"What is it?" Ten said.

"Rose!"

Ten and Eleven looked at each other and groaned when Suri ran across the parking lot in front of the parking garage towards them.

"Not him," Rose moaned.

"Wow, I'm surprised he can run that fast in his drunken state," Ten remarked as Suri sprinted towards him.

"Allow me," Eleven said, getting up.

Suri stopped short when Eleven intercepted him.

"Good evening, Suri," Eleven said.

"Yeah, hi. Look, I wanna talk to Rose, so get out of the way."

"Rose is busy at the moment," Eleven said.

"Fuck off, man," Suri said.

Eleven folded his arms over his chest and stared at him calmly. Suri tried to move around him but the Doctor moved with him and Suri sighed angrily.

"Get out of my way or I'm fucking you up," he said.

"Doctor, the trolley," Rose called.

Eleven turned his head and saw the trolley turning the corner. He walked over to Rose and Ten and Suri walked with him. Eleven and Ten got behind Rose and Suri tried to move around them but the trolley pulled up in front of her and Rose sprinted inside when the doors opened. Ten and Eleven got on and went to the back with Rose. Suri got on and Rose sighed angrily when he headed towards her.

"Piss off," Rose said to him while the two Doctors glared.

Suri plopped down onto the bench beside theirs and gave her a baleful look.

"Why did you leave early? Mary was upset," Suri said.

"I don't care, I didn't like the film. I don't wanna watch a film that preaches to people and besides it was boring and daft. I wanted to go with…John and see Oklahoma City and guess what, now we're gonna go see some more of Oklahoma City so get over it!"

"But I wanted you to stay," Suri said.

"We're not obligated to do anything you want to do; we tried your movie night and didn't like it, so we left. Like Rose said, you don't like that, get over it," Ten said.

Ten glanced at his counterpart and rolled his eyes when Suri sulked at that. Rose shook her head, mumbled "Wanker," under her breath and relaxed while Ten and Eleven sat near her. Both Doctors kept a wary eye on Suri who was grumbling under his breath and getting angrier by the moment. They kept watch and protected the woman they loved until the bus finally went into Bricktown. Eleven pulled the cord to alert the driver they wanted off when they neared the cinema and they all stood up. Rose glared at Suri when he stood up with them but the Doctors pushed past him with Rose in the middle. Once they were off the trolley, the three of them hauled ass towards the cinema while Suri tried to keep up with them. They ran over the footbridge, laughing while they got away from Suri who was cussing loudly. They reached the cinema box office and quickly looked at the choices.

"Harry Potter!" Ten said. "Three for Harry Potter," she said to the lady in the booth.

"Piss off!" Rose said, turning to Suri who just now caught up to her.

"Look, I wanna be your friend!" Suri said. "I don't like people running off like that. I haven't done a damn thing to you."

Eleven turned and walked up to him.

"Listen, I am very protective of this woman and I don't like people bothering her," Eleven growled.

"Who the Hell are you then?"

"I'm her boyfriend and I don't like competition, I get insanely jealous when someone tries to make the moves on my girl!"

"I'm not! And anyway, I thought he was her boyfriend," Suri said, pointing to Ten who had finished paying for them and was now listening with Rose.

"I am," the Doctor said which shocked Rose.

"You're both her boyfriend," Suri said.

"Yes, we have a very open relationship," the Doctor said. "We're all bisexual and bicurious and we have decided to date one another."

"You're all fags?" Suri said, making a face.

"I believe the term I just used is bisexual and bicurious, not fags, that is a very rude and naughty term," Eleven said.

Rose had to turn away to hide her laughter when she saw that Suri was now a bit disgusted at all of them. She looked at Eleven when he pulled her into his arms and her eyes widened in surprise when he kissed her on the lips. Rose felt herself melting in his arms.

"Oi, let me have some of that," Ten said.

Rose smiled as she was transferred into Ten's arms and melted again when Ten kissed her. Then he let go of her and Rose nearly lost it when Ten and Eleven embraced each other and stared tenderly into each other's eyes.

"Fuck this, I'm not gonna watch this!" Suri said.

Rose laughed when Suri ran off and Ten and Eleven let go of each other.

"Good job, Doctor," Eleven said.

"Thank you, Doctor, we make quite a team," Ten said.

"Yes, we do and now….Rose, shall we go inside?" Eleven said.

Rose smiled and took both their hands before they walked inside the cinema.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

"Wow," Rose said as they came out of the cinema, "I got to see the ending of the Harry Potter books."

"That's right," Ten said, "in your time, the last book hasn't come out yet."

"Nope, I never thought it'd end that way though. Ron and Hermione, I thought she'd end up with Harry in the end."

"Ought oh, she's displeased," Eleven said to Ten, "we need to find JK and complain."

"Or go back in time before she wrote it, hold a gun to her head and demand she pair Hermione up with Harry or else."

"Or we just leave her alone and let her write the books the way she wants to," Rose said.

"Or…we just leave her alone and let her write the books they way she wants to," Eleven said.

"Brilliant idea!" Ten said, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand, "I'm glad I thought of it!"

"Goodbye! I'm going home now!" Rose said, walking away.

"No, Suri might be out there, we must escort you," Eleven said as he and Ten came up on either side of her.

"I'm surprised he didn't stick around this time," Rose said, looking around at the nearly empty sidewalks.

Ten checked his watch.

"It's nearly two in the morning, I'm sure he got sleepy," Ten said to them. "Having said that, let's get out of here."

They walked under the bridge and out of Bricktown. Eleven led them up the street to the Radisson Hotel.

"This is where I'm staying," he said to them. "I better take my leave of you here and wish you luck. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Rose came up and hugged him.

"Be careful," she said to him.

"You too. Keep out of trouble," Eleven said.

"Oi, I think that applies to you more than it does me," she said.

Eleven chuckled and held her close, loving the feel of her body next to his again. With great reluctance, he let go and kissed Rose's cheek. He smiled tenderly at her before forcing himself to pull away. Ten and Rose stood on the sidewalk and waved to him while he walked towards the front door and waved back. They waited till he was inside and out of sight before walking on. Just past the hotel room, the Doctor stopped Rose and pointed out Eleven's TARDIS which was in a grassy spot beside the hotel. They walked over and looked at it.

"It looks newer," Rose said, running her hand along the side. "Give it a new paint job, did ya?"

"Perhaps, the old girl could do with one and I see he added a St. John Ambulance sticker to the front door. Haven't had one of those on the door for ages."

They examined it for a moment before heading on. They walked back to their TARDIS and the Doctor unlocked the door. They reached inside for their backpacks and the Doctor closed the door.

"So…multistory car park?" he said, gesturing to the parking garage across from the bus station.

"Not if he's gonna be in there."

"He, who?"

He snickered when Rose gave him a withering look. He took her hand after they put their backpacks on their back and walked across the parking lot. It was still hot and they paused at the opening to the parking garage and hesitated a moment. The cinderblock structure was two stories with glass over all the windows. The inside was empty of cars but when Rose stuck her head around, she noticed two people were snuggled under blankets against the wall. She stepped inside and grimaced. The air was still warm and the temperature inside the garage was at least 20 degrees hotter than the outside. Rose shook her head.

"No, it's way too hot in here," she said, stepping outside.

"Let's see if we can find a nearby nook then," the Doctor said.

They walked along the back of the garage and came to the next building. There was one light burning inside the brick building and the Doctor could see it was under construction. He paused and looked in the windows but it looked deserted. There was a double glass door a few feet away with a concrete path that led up to it. The concrete path was dark and sheltered by the door and the Doctor pointed it out. On either side of the path were shrubs and a few trees that also gave some shelter from prying eyes. But when they walked up to the door, they noticed someone was already curled up right by it. The person raised their head and stared at them but since the doorway was in shadow it was hard to see who it was.

"Yeah?" the person said.

The Doctor could tell from the voice she was female. He could make out she had on shorts and a white t-shirt because he could see a bit of the light reflecting on her white legs and the fabric of her shirt and she had long black hair but other than that it was hard to make out any facial features.

"Sorry, we were looking for a place to lie down," the Doctor said to her.

"You're not drunk, are you?" she said to him.

"No, neither of us are," the Doctor said.

"You won't hurt me?"

"We won't bother you; we just want a place to spend the night."

"You can sleep here then," she said, pointing to the spot in front of her.

The Doctor thanked her and they set their backpacks down on the ground a few feet from the woman.

"I'm John and this is Rose," the Doctor said while they sat down on the ground.

"I'm Jenny, nice to meet you," she said, waving to them in the dark. "This isn't a bad spot, it's a bit hot but it'll cool down in about an hour or so."

"Go ahead and lie down, Rose, I'll keep watch," the Doctor said to Rose.

Rose lay down with her head on her backpack. She shifted a little trying to get comfortable while the Doctor brought his knees up to his chest and relaxed.

"Are you hungry?" Jenny asked him. "I have some food in my backpack if you need something to eat."

"No thanks, we're fine," the Doctor said.

"Are you new? I've never seen you before."

"Yes, we got into town this morning."

"I've been here about six months so I can help you find things if you need any help."

The Doctor liked her. He could tell she wasn't drunk like Suri and she seemed to be a nice girl. Even though he and Rose had money, he was curious about this girl and what she knew.

"Yes, could you help us?" the Doctor said. "We need to find places to eat and things like that."

"Well, are you doing anything tomorrow?" Jenny said, sitting up.

"Not till the evening, we have some money and we wanted to go to the ballpark but that would be in the evening, I suppose."

"Well, if you have money, you can do a lot better than the places I could recommend," Jenny said.

"Yes, but we don't want to waste all our money on restaurants," the Doctor said. "We do want to save up so if you can help us, that would be great."

"Well, I usually get up around five on weekdays and six on the weekends. If you go to the bus station at 7, a church group comes in a truck and they pass out sausage biscuits and have coffee and donuts and water. Also, if you go up the street here," she said, pointing to the road nearest the car park, "there's this place called Sister BJ's, you can get sack lunches there on Friday and Saturday and every other week they have a clothes closet."

"Ah, yes, we did find that place this morning," the Doctor said. "Didn't know it was called that though."

"Yeah, they're nice there. Sometimes they have barbecues there and you can get hot dogs or hamburgers instead of the sack lunches along with a bag of chips and juice and stuff like that. Um…on Sunday, there's several churches you can go to that serve meals and one of them is the Indian Baptist Church and they're taking a bunch of people up to Ponca City tomorrow for some church thing and a dinner, they invited anyone to come and I'm going, want to go with me?"

"Rose, how 'bout it?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah, I'll go," Rose said, sensing the same thing as the Doctor, that the girl was a nice person and genuinely wanted to help them.

"You have to be there by 8:30 in the morning. So if you want to come with me, we can get the food from the truck, run by Sister BJ's for the sack lunch and then head on to the church."

"Brilliant. Where is Ponca City though?" the Doctor said.

"Um…I think it's up north…by the Oklahoma border. It's the reservation for the Ponca Indian tribe. It's some interchurch get-together they have every few months. I'v e never been to Ponca City so I thought I'd go and check it out. I don't think they'll care if you come with me, just as long as you're sober."

"Neither of us drink or do drugs."

"Good, same here, nice to meet a couple of people who aren't druggies and boozehounds."

"Same here," Rose said. "We saw several drunk people today who were extremely annoying."

"Yeah, I try to avoid them but being homeless, that's not always possible. I try to keep to myself too because a lot of the men are horny and I'm by myself and they all want me to pair up with them. I'm not a slut and they don't like that I won't have sex with them but I don't care, I might be homeless but I still have standards and I won't spread my legs for just anyone."

"Good for you," the Doctor said.

"I also don't panhandle or hustle or beg for shit, that's beneath me. I just let God take care of me and go to these soup kitchens and places like that. It's different if someone wants to give me something on their own but I won't ask for it."

The Doctor smiled and nodded, liking this girl even more.

"Are you from Oklahoma?" Rose said, turning her head to look at her.

"Nah, I'm from New York, I became homeless a few years ago and I've been traveling across the country after I couldn't find any jobs."

"How do you travel?" the Doctor said.

"Anyway I can, walk, hitchhike, sneak on buses or ride them legally when I can find the money to do it."

"By yourself?" Rose said.

"Yup."

"Wow," Rose said while she and the Doctor shared a look. "You're brave."

"Eh, I've been through so much in my life, there's very little that scares me anymore. I figure I'll die sometime, might as well live my life and take some risks before that happens."

The Doctor nodded again.

"Anyway, I gotta get some sleep," Jenny said, lying back down. "I'll wake you up. There's a huge clock across the street if you need to check the time. You guys are welcome to sleep here at night, just be aware that jerks will walk through from time to time and might wake you up at four in the morning asking for a cigarette or something like that. Just tell them to fuck off, I do."

Rose giggled while the Doctor blinked in amazement.

"You tell strangers to fuck off?" the Doctor said with admiration.

"Hey, these idiots are waking me up to ask for stupid shit, then get offended when I get pissed off at them. Sorry, but I wasn't raised in a barn and I don't go waking people up on the street, especially since that's a good way to get maced or stabbed or shot. But some people don't think, I guess. No one's messed with me though, they just walk away mumbling I'm a bitch like it's my fault. Just letting you know that happens so you won't be surprised if you see a drunk bending over you asking you who you are and why you're here."

"Well, I'll be sure to tell them to fuck off then," the Doctor said while Rose giggled.

"That's the spirit," Jenny said. "Well, It's nice to meet you both and I'll see you around six o'clock."

The Doctor and Rose wished her goodnight and Jenny closed her eyes. The Doctor winked at Rose and took her hand. Rose closed her eyes and the Doctor kept watch over them both while both Jenny and Rose drifted off to sleep.


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

The Doctor didn't need to sleep so he stayed up and kept watch over his lover and his new friend. He kept glancing back at her and noticed she was fast asleep. It impressed him that she was able to just sleep with no fear of being harmed and after putting up with Suri, he was glad they found a decent person out on the streets.

When it neared six, the Doctor noticed that Jenny stirred and was starting to wake up. He figured her internal clock was now used to getting up this early since he knew she couldn't see the clock from her vantage point. He gently prodded Rose awake when Jenny got up and stretched. Jenny walked past the Doctor to check the time and he noticed she was a young Asian woman. Jenny turned and smiled at him.

"Morning," she said to him and Rose.

"Morning," the Doctor said while Rose sat up and stretched her back muscles.

He got up with Rose while Jenny walked back to retrieve her backpack. They put theirs on while she carried hers by the handle. They walked out of the doorway and Jenny told them to wait while she put her backpack on the ground. She opened it up, took out some toilet paper and unrolled a bit of it onto her hand. She put the remainder back, zipped up her backpack and the Doctor and Rose watched while she walked to a trash dumpster that was between the parking garage and a lawyer's office. She walked up to the dumpster and walked around the side furthest from the Doctor and Rose. They watched while she looked around, searching for something then she ducked down. They heard a hissing sound and Rose put her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh when a stream of urine suddenly ran out from behind the dumpster. Then Jenny stood up, looking down for a moment and then she threw the crumpled up toilet paper into the open dumpster. She then looked down for a few more seconds before she came around the dumpster and walked back to them.

"Sorry, couldn't hold it in," she said to them as she grabbed her backpack and put it on her back.

"That was rather bold of you," the Doctor said, amused, while they walked across the parking lot.

"Well, unlike you, I can't just discreetly whip it out and piss in a bush. When you gotta go, you gotta go. I just made sure that you and Rose were the only ones watching before I did it. The bus station opens up at 7 and I do use their bathroom but I couldn't wait."

They were nearly to the street when they suddenly heard Suri calling out to them.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Before the Doctor could say anything, Jenny spun around and glared at him.

"Fuck off, Aladdin; no one wants to be around your drunk ass!"

Rose bent over, roaring with laughter, while Suri glowered at Jenny.

"I'm not drunk," Suri said, walking up to them.

"Yeah, sure you're not, we can see your red eyes from here," Jenny said.

"I don't sleep very well, alright?" Suri said.

"Yeah, cause you're too busy swigging down vodka, Sabu, I know how you are and I know what you do. You're drunk, anyone can see that," Jenny said.

"Fuck you."

"No, fuck you and get the fuck away from us before I kick you in the fucking balls!" Jenny said.

Suri glared at her. He made a move towards her and the Doctor stepped between him and her and gave him a look of warning. Suri sighed and shook his head as he walked away. When he was far enough away, the Doctor turned to Jenny and snickered.

"Aladdin? Sabu?" the Doctor said, amused.

"I don't know his real name, I just call him what everyone else around here calls him," Jenny said. "They call him Aladdin mainly because he looks like Aladdin from the cartoon."

"Yeah, he does, now that you said that," Rose said as they walked towards the bus station. "His name's Suri though."

"It is? Oh…okay, didn't know that," Jenny said. "Sorry, I try to stay away from him whenever possible so I didn't take the time to learn his real name."

"Aladdin," the Doctor said, nudging Rose, "we'll have to remember that one next time he comes round."

"And pardon my French, I don't know if you swear but I try to make myself look tough so people will leave me alone. I'm a nice person, honestly."

"No worries, we can tell you're a nice person," the Doctor said while Rose nodded. "I just love that you stood up to him, he's been bothering us since yesterday."

"Not many people like him because he does shit like that, follows people around and tries to mooch off of em, I try to ignore him but sometimes he doesn't get the message. He's one of the ones that lives up to that whole stereotyped image of homeless people. You know, lazy drunk who lives off others any way he can. That kind of person I can do without."

They sat down in the chairs in one of the bus bays. They noticed a few others were doing the same but the bus station was still locked and no buses were in sight yet. They set their backpacks down by their legs while they relaxed. While they were talking, Suri came into the parking lot. Everyone stopped talking when Suri stopped about twenty feet from them and glared at them.

"Keep moving, Dipshit," Jenny muttered while the Doctor and Rose giggled.

The Doctor watched while Jenny leaned forward and gave him the same glare. Suri flipped her off.

"No, that can't be your IQ, it's too damn high," Jenny muttered while the Doctor and Rose giggled some more.

Suri sighed and moved on.

"Bye, Sabu, don't let the door hit your drunken, loser ass on the way out," Jenny said airily before turning her attention back to her friends.

"Gee, Rose, I think we found us a bodyguard," the Doctor said, patting Jenny's arm. "She can keep us away from Suri."

"Good," Rose said, "she can keep us from being dragged to Christian film nights now."

"Where was that?" Jenny said.

"Up the road, that First Church?" Rose said, pointing towards the memorial.

"Oh, that Friday Night Alive thing?"

The Doctor and Rose nodded.

"Oh, last night was movie night? Damn, I don't mind going to those. Most of the time I do go but I have a food stamp card and I use it whenever I get tired of going to these churches and being preached to."

"That's why we snuck out early," the Doctor said. "Rose and I hated the Christian film they were showing. We're not religious."

"I'm not either. I'm spiritual but…well; I guess I'm multifaith although I'm more of a pagan right now. I mainly decide for myself what I believe and pick and choose from different faiths. I do believe some of what Christianity teaches but not everything and I get tired of having to sit through a sermon to get a meal. Unfortunately, most of the people who help the homeless are Christians and they use the whole feeding the homeless thing as an excuse to preach to them. Witnessing and all that. It gets on my nerves. But there are nice people in some of these churches. The ones at the Indian church are nice, they invited me to go to this thing in Ponca City and I go to a women's bible study thing every other Tuesday. They still preach but they bring in home cooked food and snacks and it beats anything the shelters serve so I put up with it. I do listen but I don't believe all of it like some people do."

"That's the way to be," the Doctor said. "I've studied many religions and many of them have the same sort of beliefs."

"I know, right? Most of the religions preach love thy neighbor and the golden rule and things like that. I've also studied a lot of different religions, because I'm curious and also because I loooove to read. I read every chance I get."

"Me too, love reading," the Doctor said.

"I read on occasion," Rose said. "But I do love to read when I get the chance. But I feel the same way. I like to form my own beliefs and I don't like being forced to listen to sermons I have no interest in. I do believe in God but I also believe people should be free to believe what they want to."

"Well, if you're gonna eat at these churches; be prepared to sit through their sermons. You do have the option to sit outside and wait but it's too hot and uncomfortable doing that so I go inside and just wait and listen in the air conditioning. Same with this past winter, I didn't want to sit in the freezing cold so I went inside. I just try to daydream or think about other things while they talk."

At 7, they saw the security guard open up the doors to the bus station. They went inside and used the lavatories. By the time they came back outside, a line was forming in front of a white pick-up truck across the street. The Doctor and Rose followed Jenny and they got in the back of the line when they reached it.

"Hey, Rose G!"

"Oh no," Rose muttered.

The Doctor snickered when G came up behind Rose.

"Nice to see you again, G," G said to her.

"Uh, yeah, you too," Rose said politely.

"Getting ya some doughnuts and coffee, G?"

Rose thought he was still talking to her but when she looked behind her; she noticed he was now talking to a Hispanic man that had just walked up. Rose shrugged and turned her attention back to the people on the truck.

"Good morning," a man was saying as he stood beside the truck, "nice to see everyone this morning. We're gonna serve breakfast but first I want to give you a little bible verse."

"See?" Jenny muttered to the Doctor and Rose.

The Doctor nodded and he and Rose waited with Jenny for the sermon to end. He checked his watch and noticed it was now almost 7:15 while the man talked about how God loved the homeless and would take care of them. After the five minute talk was over, the man grabbed an insulated bag and began handing everyone something wrapped up in tinfoil. He gave one to Jenny, the Doctor and Rose and Jenny turned to them.

"You guys want coffee or doughnuts?" she said.

"No," they both said.

"We better get going if we're gonna make the bus to Ponca City though," the Doctor added.

"Yeah, follow me and we'll go to BJ's real quick before we head over there."

As they walked away, Rose opened the tinfoil in her hand and saw a sausage biscuit inside. She touched it and made a face.

"Biscuit's soggy," she said, wrapping it back up.

"Yeah, they used to get them from Brahms and those were really good but that was back when they only had a few people coming to the truck but word got around and I guess it got to the point where they couldn't afford to go so they started making their own. They're okay, but nothing like Brahms and yeah, the biscuit is usually soggy like that."

They turned the corner when they reached the end of the bus station and headed back to Sister BJ's. it was a ten minute walk from the bus station and Jenny was dismayed when she saw that they were barbecuing instead of giving out sack lunches.

"Hope there isn't a line," she said as they went up the brick walkway to the gate.

By the time they got there though, the line had gone down and they each got two hamburgers on a Styrofoam plate and took a small sack of potato chips to go with it. They put some ketchup and mustard on the burgers and when Jenny requested a plastic sack to take hers in, the Doctor and Rose did the same. They watched while Jenny also requested a hygiene kit and the man behind the table gave her a small plastic bag filled with toiletries.

"If you guys need some hygiene stuff, you can ask them for a hygiene kit," Jenny said to them.

"Nah, we're good," the Doctor said.

Jenny checked her sack to make sure her hamburgers were still intact and then she, the Doctor and Rose left there and headed towards the Indian church.


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter Nineteen

By the time, they got to the Indian church, it was nearly 8:30 and there were three cars parked in the large grassy area in front of the church. The Doctor, Rose and Jenny walked up a long concrete lamp to a concrete porch and Jenny opened the front door and they went inside. Off to the right was the chapel and they went inside. Jenny waved and smiled when an elderly woman saw her and came over. The Doctor and Rose stopped when they hugged each other and then Jenny turned to her friends.

"This is Alice, Pastor Stark's wife; these are my friends, John and Rose. Do you mind if they come with us?"

"No, I don't mind, there's plenty of room," Alice said, shaking their hands. "We need to wait though because they went and got a school bus for all of us to ride in. So just relax and we'll let you know when the bus gets here."

They nodded and an Indian woman with salt and pepper hair came up and hugged Jenny. Jenny introduced her as Blue and she shook the Doctor and Rose's hands before she went and sat down in one of the wooden pews. The Doctor and Rose followed Jenny up to the front pew and saw with her on a long, yellow cushion. Jenny took one of her burgers out of the sack and the Doctor and Rose did the same. They ate and chatted while they waited for the bus.

"Are you guys doing anything tomorrow?" Jenny asked them.

"Not yet, why?" the Doctor said.

"Have you been to the library yet?" Jenny said.

"Yeah, we went there for awhile yesterday," Rose said.

"I go there a lot and use the computers. Frankly, there's not much to do here unless you have money and it's been so hot that I spend a lot of time at the library to get away from the heat. But tomorrow, they have this international festival thing where they'll have foods from different countries and singers and dancers and crafts. Would you like to do that since you said you wanted to save money? It's all free."

"Sounds good," the Doctor said.

"And also, on Wednesday nights at 6, they show a free movie too. I've seen a couple of them. But that's something else you can do to save money."

"That might also be good," the Doctor said.

"On Sunday mornings, I go down the street from here because they have a church that serves hot meals that are really good. It's called Fountain of Faith but everyone calls it the Black Church because the minister's a black guy. But they're really nice there and most of the time the food is really good. Then most people come here for breakfast and lunch and they also serve dinner here at 7 and also serve lunch and dinner on Thursdays. But after lunch here, you can walk up to this abandoned Goodwill and around 12:30 a bunch of people come with clothes, sack lunches, books, hygiene stuff…um…backpacks, shoes, lots of things. And also, if you ride a bike they have a guy that comes and checks out your bike and fixes anything that's wrong."

"Wow," Rose said. "They take care of people around here."

"Yeah, they do. If you go hungry here, it's your fault basically because there's so many places and people that will serve you meals and between Goodwill and BJ's, I get enough clothes that I don't usually go and launder them, I just throw away anything that's really soiled or ripped and get clean clothes and socks and underwear. Um…also, Monday through Friday at 5:30 in the morning, you can go to First Church and get breakfast, except they're about to move that to a different place in about a week or so. Monday night, they have another church group that comes to the library and they serve food and have church service or you can go to the yard outside this church and they have people who come with soup and sack lunches and clothes and then Friday, they move to a parking lot several blocks from here and give away sack lunches and other stuff. Friday, you have that Friday Night Alive and Saturday you have Saturday Night Alive at another church and you can eat there and get jackets and blankets and hygiene stuff."

"Yeah, you're right, there is no excuse to go hungry," the Doctor said.

"Oh yeah, and most of the homeless people help each other find these places which is why I'm helping you. I'm just doing what others have done to me and making sure you don't go hungry or naked or end up smelly here."

"Thank you for that," Rose said while the Doctor nodded in agreement.

"Hey, we're all in this together and most homeless people band together because a lot of non-homeless people look down on us and treat us like shit or like we're vermin, especially cops and security guards. Here, if you look homeless and you're carrying a backpack, the cops will slow down and follow you to see what you're doing and sometimes harass you."

"Seriously?" Rose said.

"Yeah, I've been walking along minding my own business and a cop car will be coming along and they will slow down and look right at me before speeding up and going on their way. I know it's because of people like Aladdin that are drunk all the time and they check for them but not every homeless person does that and it's people like Aladdin that give the rest of us a bad name. So, just be aware of that, especially in Bricktown because a lot of people have said if you go in there with a backpack, the cops harass you. Not me, but I try not to look homeless and I guess maybe I'm a woman. Some of the people who told me the cops hassled them in there were dirty and scruffy and drunk. But I've seen businesspeople carrying backpacks so hoboes aren't the only ones. But here in Oklahoma, it seems like if you go out in public with a backpack, you're automatically under suspicion."

"Well, we have a place to store our backpacks and we can store yours so you don't have to walk around with it all the time," the Doctor said. "I'm sorry people are harassing you for simply carrying one."

Jenny shrugged.

"It's just people's prejudices against the homeless, I've had so much crap and dirty looks from people that I've just learned to ignore it. I know who I am and I'm a good person and I don't give a crap if people think otherwise."

The Doctor smiled at that and nodded.

"Anyway, just another tip for you so you'll be aware," Jenny said to them. "Really, if you just keep to yourself and don't bother anyone, you'll be okay. Just stay away from the wrong crowd, the drunks, drug addicts, people with tempers who wanna fight everyone, that sort of crowd."

"Thank you for all these tips and information," the Doctor said.

"No problem, just trying to help. Oh, and I hope Aladdin stops bothering you. You really need to stay away from him. Since I've been here, I know of him going to jail at least twice and both times he beat the shit outta someone who I guess slighted him in some way. He's fucking nuts, pardon my French again. He's also very racist, which strikes me as funny since he's a minority himself but he hates black people and he's called people the N word straight to their faces. I don't know if he'd say anything to you though."

"Well, actually," Rose said. "When he first came up to us, he told us that we invaded his country. Meaning the UK did but he said it to us like we personally invaded India."

Jenny rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about, the man has no tact and he'll say whatever's on his mind and then wonder why he keeps getting targeted for a beating," Jenny said. "But he'll beat up people if he feels like it, so like I said, keep away from his nutty ass."

"We're trying, believe me," the Doctor said.

"Well, I hope eventually he'll give up and leave you alone if you don't give him the time of day," Jenny said. "You'll have enough flak from non-homeless people without him following you around. But the way you guys look, you shouldn't have much problem blending in to the general public. That's why I do everything I can not to look homeless unlike some scruffy people around here. And I have to say, you look good," Jenny said, pointing to the Doctor's suit. "You're one snazzy hobo, I have to say."

Rose bent over laughing while the Doctor beamed at that.

"I'm an executive tramp," the Doctor said.

"I'll say, I don't see any hobos wearing a suit, you're doing the smart thing," Jenny said.

"Well, I could go roll in the dirt and jump in a mudpuddle, if you want."

"Um…no, I'd advise against that," Jenny said while the Doctor and Rose laughed.

They looked at the door when Alice came back inside and told them they were ready. The Doctor, Rose and Jenny hurriedly ate their hamburgers, gathered up their sacks and gear and went outside.


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

The bus parked outside in the yard was a white school bus that was no longer in service. The Doctor, Rose and Jenny climbed up into it and chose seats near the back. Jenny and Rose sat together while the Doctor sat in front of them and turned so he could see and talk to them. One by one the others filed into the bus and Jenny looked at them.

"Hmm," she said when everyone was finally inside.

"What is it?" the Doctor said.

"Except for us and Alice, the others are Indian. Not that that's a bad thing, just making an observation."

"Well, this is an Indian church, yeah?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah but a lot of the homeless who come here are black and Caucasian. They welcome everyone, not just Indians. Come to think of it, I think we're the only homeless people on this trip. They invited everyone last Thursday but I guess people don't feel like traveling to Ponca City. I've never been and I get tired of Oklahoma City. I've only been here and Edmond so far. Actually, they have a bus that goes from here to Edmond. It's free and it runs on the weekdays. It's a 30 minute ride and then the buses in Edmond are all free so I go to their Wal-Mart when I have food stamps and get something to eat there."

"The buses are free there but not here?" the Doctor said.

"Yeah, I think Edmond is mainly populated with rich people who can afford to keep their buses free. Anyway, if you need food, you can ride it and take their buses and come back, all for free."

"Wow, we really will save money with all this advice," the Doctor said to Rose. "So, when do you go to Edmond?"

"I can go Monday if you want to come with me," Jenny said, shrugging. "I got at 6:30 in the morning and it gets me back about 9:15 when the library opens."

The bus started up and everyone gasped when the driver started to pull out and the inside began to rattle. Rose felt her teeth rattling while the bus pulled into an alley beside the church.

"Could do with a better bus," Rose said as the bus kept on rattling while it sped up.

"I hope it's not like this the entire trip," Jenny said. "This is annoying."

The Doctor heard the other people making comments about the rattling and he knew it wasn't just them. But after awhile, they got used to it and didn't notice it anymore while they chatted. While they talked, they occasionally looked out the windows. Once they left the city, the scenery was rolling hills, red earth and occasionally grazing cattle.

"Kinda boring," Jenny said while they looked out the window.

"Yes, I've seen better scenery," the Doctor said. "It's not very remarkable."

He looked over his shoulder when he felt the bus slow down and they watched while they pulled into a gas station with a convenience store.

"We're gonna get gas and take a break," Alice said. "So if you want to use the restroom or get something to eat, you can."

"Thank you, I have got to pee, this bus has shaken my bladder to bits," Jenny said, getting up.

Rose and the Doctor laughed and got up with her. They got off the bus and headed into the store. When they were inside, Rose stopped the Doctor while Jenny went towards the restroom. The Doctor gave her a puzzled look while she guided him over to a couple of refrigerators.

"I like her," Rose said to him.

"So do I, she's a sweet girl," he said.

"I think we should tell her the truth about who we are," Rose said. "I think she could handle it."

The Doctor considered that.

"Doctor, if we're gonna store her backpack with ours, we have to explain about the TARDIS," Rose said. "I doubt if she'll let us snatch her backpack and run away with it. I don't think she'll run and tell everyone who we are, she seems like a trustworthy person."

"Yes, I agree, she's looking out for us so far and you're right, I did offer to store her backpack so I will have to tell her about us. We'll wait till she's alone with us though, I won't tell her on the bus with all those people sitting around us."

Rose nodded and they reached into one of the refrigerators and got a couple of bottled Cokes while Jenny came back out of the restroom. The Doctor heard her ask the clerk if they took food stamps and when he told her they did, she walked back to the refrigerators. She smiled when she saw her friends.

"I'm glad they stopped here, I was hankering for a Coke too," she said, reaching for one.

"Jenny, let me pay for it, save your food stamps for another time," the Doctor said.

"Um," Jenny said. "You don't have to."

"I know. But I want to. Call it payment for your information and being nice to us."

Jenny nodded and thanked him as she handed him the Coke. The Doctor took Rose's Coke as well and they walked up to the cashier together. They paid for it and walked back out to the bus. They made small talk and sipped their drinks while everyone else got back on and the driver started the bus up again. They listened to Jenny talk about living in New York and some of her adventures. She told them she was 23 and worked in a couple of warehouses until they laid her off and closed down the warehouse. She had been trying to find work but wasn't successful and eventually was evicted from her home. Her family and friends tried to help her but the help ran out and eventually she decided to just travel and see if she could find work in other states. But, she told them, people all over the US were fighting for jobs and more and more good paying jobs were becoming scarce so even if she had found one, she doubted it could have been a living wage. She was trying to trust in God and have faith that things would turn around but she told them it was hard sometimes since people in her situation faced a lot of negativity.

"Not to mention there's a catch-22 to all this," she said to them. "You have to have a house to have a job but you need a job to have a house and the shelters are crappy and there are many people who run them who aren't interested in helping anyone. All they care about is the money the state gives them and skimming from the donations. Not everyone is like that but I've been in several shelters and most of them are soul killing places. I'd rather be on the street where I'm free to move around and people aren't trying to control my movements and treat me like crap or getting power trips because they're in charge of me and I have to do what they say or get thrown out on my ass. I don't need that aggravation. I'd rather take my chances on the street."

The Doctor rubbed the arm that she had put on top of the seat in sympathy and Jenny smiled at that. They gasped when the bus hit a pothole and it jarred them.

"Great, now the bus will fall apart on us," Rose said.

Jenny sipped her Coke while she looked out at the scenery.

"Do you know anything about history?" she suddenly asked the Doctor.

She gave Rose an odd look when Rose let out an uncontrolled laugh at that. The Doctor chuckled and Jenny noticed a look that passed between them before the Doctor turned her attention to Jenny.

"Sorry, yes, I know a lot about history, I'm a history buff, why?"

"They dumped Indians here because the land was barren and not much could be done with it, is that right?" she said, gesturing out the window.

"Yes, the red earth wasn't suitable for farming and not much grazing could do done so the army moved many tribes here figuring the white people would never want it."

"I was just thinking about that because it seems like the scenery is really boring and bland," Jenny said. "There are a lot of Indians here with drinking problems and I think it got started because what else could you do here on these reservations but accept government handouts."

"That and the idea was to destroy their way of life so they would rely on government handouts," the Doctor said.

"Most of the Indians I know are either drunks or have had drinking problems," Jenny said. "Which is sad because I love learning about other cultures and I love Native American cultures and it's sad to see them reduced to spending their days drinking on street corners and in abandoned buildings because there's nothing else to do. And some of them place the blame on whites and that gives them an excuse for their drinking problem since the white man is supposedly to blame for them being drunks. Some black people do that too and blame whites for oppressing them when really they're the ones who are holding themselves back. I hate to say it but there are many hillbillies around here of all races who don't have much of an education and think you're weird if you have any intelligence. I've heard people criticize others before because they read books or they're smart. Not to mention trying to speak to some of the people who do have alcohol and drug problems and having them look at you like you're speaking a foreign language. Then you have to repeat yourself, even if it's something simple and sometimes they still look at you with a blank look. I'm glad I never did any of that shit because all that drug and drinking destroys your brain."

"I agree. I've never done any of that either," the Doctor said. "I've drank on occasion but not to the point I'm lying around with a bottle in my mouth. And I admire people with intelligence. Rose can tell you that."

"Yup," she said to Jenny. "He doesn't believe in solving problems with violence, only with your mind and your wits."

"That's refreshing," Jenny said to the Doctor. "Glad someone thinks that way and just doesn't jump on someone at the first sign of an insult."

"Nah, that's not my style," the Doctor said while Rose nodded in agreement.

"And I drink and gotten drunk but not all the time," Rose said. "I've never done drugs and don't smoke. I agree with you about killing the brain cells, I hate trying to talk to people like the ones you described and getting the same blank look. It's sad because some of these people are our age and they're already half gone."

"And I know that the reason some of them do it is because they have no hope," Jenny said. "And I sympathize with that but at the same time, I don't cloud my mind with all that and lie around and hope it'll all go away. I'd rather face my problems head on and deal with them so they will go away eventually."

The Doctor listened, admiring her more and more. He began to wonder if perhaps she could be persuaded to come with them on the TARDIS. With each passing moment, she sounded more and more like companion material. He figured if they were going to come clean about who they were and she accepted that, he ought to try to convince her to come with them. She was everything he wanted in a companion anyway so it made perfect sense.

"Here we are, the Ponca reservation," Alice called out.

The Doctor, Rose and Jenny looked out the window.

"See, the scenery's still kinda blah," Jenny said, gesturing out the window. "I know we've had a drought here but even so, I have a feeling it'd be blah if there was constant rain."

The driver drove on for about twenty minutes before they finally pulled into a small church that was directly off the highway. Once he stopped, everyone got up and filed out of the bus.


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty One

"Oh my God, look at that."

The Doctor and Rose came around the bus to Jenny who was looking at something to her left. They came up beside her and did a double take. On the other side of the gravel parking lot was a large luxury coach bus that looked brand new. On the side was a painting of three Indians riding horse in traditional dress and under it in big red letters was COMANCHES ON THE MOVE.

"Does that belong to another church?" Jenny said. "If so, I wish we had it."

They walked over to it, admiring it.

"You know these people didn't come here with their teeth rattling the entire way," Rose said.

"I love the painting too," Jenny said. "Wow…damn, I can see TVs in there so they got to watch TV too. Lucky ducks."

"I wonder what their church looks like if they can afford this," Rose said as they turned and walked to the church.

"Probably grand," Jenny said. "I bet they own a casino and get money from that. The Indian church isn't like that."

"Yeah, I noticed it looked a bit worn," the Doctor said. "Not like the mega churches some groups have."

"This place is simple too," Jenny said, pointing to the small wooden church that was sitting just outside a forest.

They went inside and stopped when a group of people blocked their way. The group slowly dispersed and they saw the reason when they noticed a table just inside the door had coffee and doughnuts on it.

"Ugh, I'm sick of doughnuts," Jenny said, making a face. "Lot of shelters give you that and once I stop being homeless, I'm staying as far away from doughnuts as I possibly can."

"Not to mention we just had one of our burgers," Rose said. "I'm giving the doughnuts a miss too."

"I'm a nonconformist!" the Doctor said, snatching a chocolate doughnut out of the box.

"You're also a bottomless pit," Rose said as they walked down the aisle to a pew.

"Yeah, well you're a Doo Hog," the Doctor said.

"O…kay," Jenny said while the Doctor and Rose laughed. "Don't know what Doo Hog is and I'm not sure I wanna know."

"He's picking on me because I got a Scooby Doo blanket at Sister BJs yesterday and he's calling me a Doo Hog."

"She didn't need it!" the Doctor said as they sat down.

"Oh, shut up and eat your doughnut," Rose said.

The Doctor grinned and took a bite of it. Everyone else filled in around them. The Doctor glanced around and noticed that the parishioners were still mainly Indian, although one group had a couple of black teens with them. He turned back around and put his arm around Rose. When everyone was settled down in their seats, the Indian minister took the podium and the room fell silent.

"I want to thank everyone for coming today," the minister said. "I don't have much to say, just a few words and we have a presentation by our youth group who will sing a couple of songs for you. After that, we'll go to the community center for the dinner."

The Doctor, Rose and Jenny listened while the minister delivered his sermon. After speaking for about twenty minutes, he asked the youth group to come up to the front and sing. Ten kids and teenagers came up to the front and sang a couple of hymns. Everyone applauded them and they sat back down when they were finished.

"And now," the minister said, looking at some people in the front row, "we have Lucy who will sing us a traditional song in the Cherokee language."

"Oh cool," Jenny whispered to her friends.

Lucy, a short, thin woman with long flowing black hair stood up and faced everyone.

"I want to sing Amazing Grace in the Cherokee language."

"Oh, I thought when she said that, she meant a traditional Cherokee song," Jenny whispered to her friends.

"Yeah, I was hoping for the same thing," the Doctor whispered back.

The woman began to sing Amazing Grace in Cherokee. The Doctor could still understand her and he had to admit the translation was pretty close to the original song but he was still a bit disappointed that she wasn't singing a traditional tribal song. When she was finished, everyone applauded and she sat back down.

"This concludes the service," the minister said. "Okay, everyone, once you leave here, turn right and drive about two miles. You'll see a road but don't turn down it because that'll lead to our powwow grounds."

"P'eh, I'd rather go see a powwow," Jenny muttered to the Doctor and Rose.

"Yeah, me too," the Doctor muttered back.

"The community center is just beyond that road along the highway," the minister said. "We'll see you there and I'm sure the First Comanche Baptist Church will be going there in style."

Everyone laughed while the Comanche smiled and nodded.

"For anyone who hasn't seen their bus, go out and take a look, "the minister said. "They have come up from Ardmore and I understand that you watched movies the entire time?"

"Yes," a Comanche woman said, "we have TVs in our brand new bus and we watched movies all the way here."

"Lucky ducks," Jenny muttered to her friends.

Everyone got up and The Doctor, Rose and Jenny waited until the crowd thinned out. As they headed out, they noticed other people standing around, admiring the bus.

"Lucky ducks!" Rose said while the Doctor and Jenny giggled.

They got on their bus and the Doctor stuck his tongue out at the Comanche bus while Rose and Jenny laughed.

"You're rubbish, you are, you and your fancy-schmancy bus!" the Doctor said. "We're ten times better than you and your fancy-schmancy tellys and DVD players!"

Everyone climbed into their bus and the driver waited for the parking lot to clear out before he followed.

"No," the Doctor said when they passed the road the minister mentioned. "I wanna see a powwow!"

"Yeah, me too, powwow for me!" Jenny said.

Rose was sipping the remainder of her Coke and smiled at that. She noticed something though. In all the time they'd been on the bus, no one had bothered to talk to them and even in the church, no one came up to introduce themselves. Even Alice who had been friendly to them was talking with others up near the front and the rest barely looked their way. She wondered if it had something to do with the perception of them being homeless or if it was because they were strangers. She was glad she had the Doctor and Jenny to talk to because she knew she would have felt uneasy being all alone with no one speaking to her.

The bus slowed and pulled into a large parking lot that surrounded a big modern looking concrete building that had been painted tan to resemble adobe. The parking lot was paved over and also looked new which was a stark contrast to the simple wooden church and gravel parking lot there. They got out and walked around to the side, going through a glass door in a large communal room. The walls had tribal shields and other artifacts on them. At the back was a stage, a blue curtain closed over it. On the other side were two long tables with a shorter table sitting beside it. People were setting food on these and a cooler full of drinks on the shorter table. In between these were eight rows of long tables with metal folding chairs. A woman directed the churches to different tables so everyone would be sitting together with their group. The Indian church got the sixth table and the Doctor sat down with Rose and Jenny sitting across from him. When everyone was in their seats, the minister came in and offered a prayer before eating. After that, the tables were called one by one to get up and queue up. It took a bit for their table to be called but the Doctor, Rose and Jenny moved quickly through the line to the tables. There was fried chicken, meat loaf, corn soup, salad, fruits and vegetables, potato salad, macaroni salad, a cheese and cold meats platter and fry bread. Everyone took a paper plate and plastic silverware and moved in front of the table, choosing what they wanted. Once they were finished and got a cupful of Coke, they walked back to their table. All of them took a small sample of everything but when Rose bit into the fry bread, her eyes widened in delight.

"This fry bread is good!" she said.

"I know, it's so flaky and has a kind of greasy taste that makes it taste really good," Jenny said.

"If we're allowed to go up for seconds, I want more," Rose said.

"Sorry, Rose," the Doctor said.

"For what?" Rose said.

"You won't get any because I'm getting it all!"

"Oh yeah, not before I do," Rose said while Jenny giggled.

Jenny laughed harder when the Doctor began to eat faster.

"Sod that, I'm not choking to death in Ponca City," Rose said, waving her hand dismissively. "You have it all, Eating Machine!"

"Good! Because I was gonna prevent you from getting to them anyway," the Doctor said.

Jenny chuckled and sipped her corn soup. About twenty minutes later, the Doctor finished his meal and got up to get more.

"Ha, I win!" he said, lightly smacking Rose on the head before he moved down the table. "The fry bread is mine!"

"He's such a kid sometimes, you'll see what I mean the longer you stay around him," Rose said to Jenny while the Doctor hurried to get in the short queue by the tables.

Five minutes later, the Doctor returned with a sour look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked as he sat down.

"I got up there; the fry bread was all gone. I hate being at table six! This isn't fair!"

"Aw, poor baby, you'll live," Rose said.

She ducked her head when the Doctor tried to swat at it and Jenny giggled.

After they ate, they walked outside while everyone else milled about. Rose noticed the same thing as before, everyone ignored them except for the people behind the serving tables who smiled and said hello to them. She finally told this to the Doctor and Jenny.

"I noticed that too. I don't know if it's because we're homeless, we're probably just new and they really don't know what to say to us. I'm sure these people have been doing this for awhile and probably know each other and have a lot of talk about and catch up on. We're just three strangers but I do think they should have at least said hello and asked about us, especially our group. It's a little rude to invite us and then ignore us the entire trip. Especially your friend, Alice, she seems to know you well enough."

"She does. But I guess she wants to stay up near the front and chat with her friends," Jenny said.

"Ah well, we have each other," the Doctor said. "We can talk amongst ourselves."

"Yeah, we're all the company we need," Rose said, nodding her head.

They looked at Jenny and noticed she was looking at the Comanche bus.

"Upset that we're not going back in that?" the Doctor said to her.

"No, it's just…"

"Just what?" the Doctor said.

"This upsets me," Jenny said, pointing to the painting on the side.

"It does? Why?" the Doctor said.

"Okay, look at it for a few seconds and then turn around."

The Doctor and Rose looked at it and then turned to look at the crowd milling around outside the community center.

"Now turn back around," Jenny said.

They turned back around to the bus.

"And turn around again."

They turn back to the crowd and Jenny turned with them.

"It upsets me because these people have put their heritage on the side of a bus while they act like white people," she said to them.

The Doctor raised his eyebrow at that and looked at Rose.

"I mean, I'm not knocking their choice of religion but…they're reduced to painting themselves as they were and putting it there," Jenny said, pointing to the bus, "And then they ride in it in their European clothes with most of them wearing European hair styles while they practice a religion that's not originally theirs. It just makes me sad because it seems like this is what the white man set out to do with them and they won. Same with the alcohol and the drunkenness. I just find it all ironic."

"She's right," Rose said. "It is a bit sad that they paint themselves on the bus as they were and this isn't them, at least not full time."

"I was a bit upset when that Cherokee woman only sang Amazing Grace in her own language. It was beautiful but I wanted to hear something else that was their own," the Doctor said while Jenny nodded. "Still, they made their decision on what religion to follow and we need to respect that even if they only honor the old ways by painting them on their bus."

They waited till everyone else got back on the bus and they followed them. Once they were settled back in their seats, the driver shut the door and started the bus, heading back to Oklahoma City.


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty Two

"Goodbye, Alice!" Jenny said when they got back to the Indian church.

"Goodbye, Jenny, see you Sunday," Alice said. "And it's nice to meet you," she added to Rose and the Doctor.

They waved to her and Jenny led them away. She took them a different direction this time so she could show them where the Black Church was. It was a few blocks down and she pointed it out to them. It was smaller white and resembled a traditional country church. It also had a heavy black gate around it's porch to prevent people from going inside.

"That's sad they had to put a gate around the entrance," Rose said.

"Yeah, I think it's because homeless people slept up there and did drugs so they put that up to stop them," Jenny said.

They turned the corner and Jenny pointed to an abandoned building by a small convenience store. In front of the abandoned building was a stone porch and several Indians were sitting on it drinking booze.

"A lot of people sit there and drink themselves blind," Jenny said to them. "Mainly Indians but there's others too, they usually don't bother anyone who passes except to say crude things but just letting you know they're there in case they do try to mess with ya."

"It's hotter n' hell, why would you want to sit there all day and get pissed?" Rose said, shaking her head. "At least find a building to go into where you won't be sitting out in the heat."

"I know, right? But apparently that's a big drinking spot."

Rose rolled her eyes when they passed by the Indians and they began to call to her.

"Hey, Blondie," one of them yelled. "Want a drink?"

Rose snickered when the Doctor glowered at them and they shut up and looked away until they passed. They went under a bridge and walked along a sidewalk.

"See, it's shadier here," Rose said, pointing to the sidewalk. "Those gits are gonna get heat stroke sitting out there." 

"Somehow, I don't think they really care, Rose," the Doctor said, looking back at the Indians who were taking swigs of whiskey and vodka and laughing loudly.

Further up the road was the Greyhound bus station.

"Unlike everything else in this stupid town, this does stay open all the time," Jenny said to them. "You can go in and use the bathroom and get a drink of water at the fountain. There are assholes behind the counter who'll glare at you. You're not really supposed to do that without buying a ticket but oh well, people do it anyway."

They walked past it and continued on to the bus station. On the way there, the Doctor glanced at Rose and caught her eye.

"Should we tell her now?" he mouthed to Rose.

Rose nodded and the Doctor noticed a park area off to their left.

"Can we sit here for a minute, Rose and I want to tell you something," the Doctor said to Jenny.

Jenny nodded and they walked off the sidewalk into the grassy area. At the very back was a plaza and a large concrete building that looked a bit like the Parthenon.

"What's that?" Rose asked, pointing to it.

"Um…that's the arts center where they put on plays and musicals," Jenny said.

She pointed to an electronic billboard on the other side of the grassy area that showed coming attractions.

"Hey, Peter Pan is coming here," the Doctor said when he saw the advertisement flash on the screen. "Anyway, back to the point."

They walked over to a low wall near a row of shrubs and sat down in the shade.

"Rose and I are grateful for all the help you've given us," the Doctor said to Jenny.

"It's nothing, I was helped when I first got here, just passing it on," she said with a shrug.

"And that's great. But Rose and I, we like you a lot and we want to come clean about a few things. See, we haven't been entirely truthful with you."

He noticed the knowing smirk spread over her face.

"What's the grin for?"

"Dear, I kinda guessed that, you're not even dressed like a hobo," Jenny said, fingering the sleeve of his jacket. "So…I'm thinking, you're reporters? Trying to act like hobos for a few days so you can see how the homeless are treated for some news story you're doing?"

"No, I'm not a reporter," the Doctor said while Rose chuckled. "But I will admit I'm not exactly homeless. Rose and I do have a home, it's just not a conventional home."

"You mean like a trailer?" Jenny said. "Houseboat? Tent?"

"Spaceship."

Jenny gave him an odd look.

"I'm sorry?" she said. "Um…you don't have any mental illnesses that you're keeping hidden from everyone?"

"No, I'm…an alien."

Jenny raised her eyebrow.

"Like I said, no mental illnesses?" she said.

"He's not insane, Jenny, he's telling the truth," Rose said.

"So, are you alien?" Jenny said.

"No, I'm human but I travel with him."

"Okay, why? Did he abduct you and put some chip in your head?"

"Why does everyone assume I do things like that, if it's not anal probes, it's brainwashing chips in the head," the Doctor said, shaking his head. "No, she came with me of her own free will. I travel through time and space and I have friends along with me who share in my adventures and help me."

"Um…I'm sorry, dear, but you need to buy some kind of alien costume if you're gonna pretend to be an alien because looking the way you are doesn't work."

The Doctor sighed. He stood up and beckoned to her.

"I have proof, I'll show you my spaceship, it's at the bus station," he said to her.

Rose noticed that Jenny was suddenly wary of them. She stood up and came over to her.

"Jenny, I know it sounds daft but he's telling the truth, I'm originally from the year 2005, this year hasn't even happened for me yet. Please just trust us enough to come and see, I promise we're not insane."

"Okay, you haven't hurt me so far so I'll give you a chance," Jenny said, standing up.

"Thank you, I promise you won't be disappointed," the Doctor said.

Jenny followed them, still a bit wary while they walked back to the bus station. When they got there, the Doctor walked up to his TARDIS and knocked on the side so Jenny could focus in on it. Jenny blinked in shock when she suddenly saw it.

"What the hell?" she said, walking up to the police box. "Where the hell did this come from?"

"It's been here all along, I have a…cloaking device on it. People see it but they ignore it and you've been doing the same thing. This is my ship though. It's called a TARDIS, stands for time and relative dimension in space."

"Bit cramped, don't you think, space alien?" Jenny said.

"Not at all, let me demonstrate," the Doctor said, pulling out his key.

He unlocked the TARDIS and he and Rose went inside. Jenny came to the door and staggered back when she saw the inside. The Doctor and Rose paused near the console.

"Coming?" the Doctor said to Jenny while they took off their backpacks and laid them down by the console.

"It's okay, don't be afraid," Rose said.

"Please come in before Suri or someone like him comes in here," the Doctor said to Jenny.

Jenny took a tentative step inside, looking around in awe while the Doctor came down to her.

"May I close the door, I promise I'm not kidnapping you," he said to her. "I just want to keep out people like Suri. The last thing I want is him vomiting on my floor."

Jenny nodded and slowly came up the ramp while the Doctor closed the door.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said to her. "I'm not evil and I won't stick things up your bum or try to enslave you. Rose and I like you and Rose thought it would be a good idea to tell you the truth especially since we offered to store your backpack for you. This is where we wanted to store it, this ship is impervious to all but a very few things and this is absolutely the safest place in the universe to put your things."

"Is this about 2012?" Jenny asked him.

The Doctor gave her a puzzled look.

"What about 2012?" he said.

"You know, supposedly the world's gonna end or change in 2012 and there's these rumors of alien visitations increasing during that time."

"Um…no," the Doctor said while Rose chuckled. "The world won't end in 2012, Rose could tell you that and I'm not here because of that, I've visited Earth many times over the centuries and in fact, I help and protect humans from other evil forces, when I'm allowed to, that is. Sometimes I can't interfere in events which is why I couldn't stop something like the Oklahoma City Bombing but there are other things I have stopped that could have destroyed the Earth."

"He's a good man, Jenny, you have no reason to fear him," Rose said. "Only evil people have a reason to fear him."

"And you travel through time with him?" Jenny asked her.

"Through time and space. I've been to a lot of different periods in time and a lot of different planets."

"And you came to Oklahoma during the hottest days of the whole year?"

"She chose it! I let her choose our next destination and we end up here," the Doctor said, pointing to Rose.

"I closed my eyes and randomly picked Oklahoma on a map," Rose said. "I wanted to visit the US since I've never been before but we decided to go hiking in one of the states and I chose Oklahoma randomly."

"I bet you're regretting that choice now," Jenny said.

"Um, sorta," Rose said while the Doctor snickered. "It hasn't been all bad but I do regret bumping into Suri."

"I think most people regret bumping into him," Jenny said. "So, are you in disguise?" she asked the Doctor. "Is this a human suit or something?"

"No, this is how I normally look," he said. "And John isn't my real name. I'm called the Doctor."

"The Doctor?" Jenny said while Rose giggled. "Odd name, even for an alien. Why not Zargax or Zenon or Malthusa or something."

"Because I'm the Doctor," he said. "I actually knew a Zargax once, con artist though, he stole some credits off me. But anyway, we let you in on our secret so could you keep this secret for us and not go running to others that I'm an alien."

"Um…Doctor…" Jenny said, trying to get used to his real name, "I'm homeless, most people think I'm nutty or a drug addict or something like that. I run up to someone and tell them I've seen a space alien in downtown Oklahoma City, they're gonna think I'm some nutty hobo that belongs in the loony bin and they might call the cops on me and have me carried away. So I doubt I could get people to believe me even if I did want to tell them, which I don't since I get enough odd looks from people as it is without telling them I know a time traveling alien. So, yes, I won't tell people about all this."

"Thank you. Now that we're in here, I wanted to let you take a shower and rest a bit before we go back out. I think Rose and I want to do the same and I can make a guest bedroom for you with a proper bed so you can get a nice refreshing nap. And tonight, you can sleep in here. I think you've earned it. Rose can show you where everything is."

"Seriously?" Jenny said.

"I'm being very serious. I need to freshen up as well and I'm sure you haven't had a shower in awhile, right?"

"No, the closest place to take a shower is two miles from here."

"Ugh, then my lavatories are at your disposal. I also have a wardrobe room where you can pick out some new clothes and a kitchen if you fancy a snack. Although, I'm thinking after a couple of hours we might go back out. We saw a fondue restaurant last night and I'd like to go there and eat."

"Oh, that Melting Pot restaurant?" Jenny said.

"Yes, have you been there before?" the Doctor asked.

"No, never had the money for it."

"Well, Rose and I want to go to the baseball game tonight so tell you what, you will be our guest and we'll pay for you to have a relaxing night on the town. After all the stuff you've been through, you've earned it."

Jenny teared up and the Doctor put his hand on her shoulder.

"Th…thanks," she said in a choked voice.

"No, thank you for all you've done for us. We want you to have fun tonight and not have to worry about cops or drunks or hiding from others. Tonight, you can be a normal human again and have a nice relaxing night with friends."

Rose smiled when Jenny gave the Doctor a hug. The Doctor grinned from ear to ear and hugged her back. He looked at Rose.

"Rose, will you show our VIP where everything is," he said.

"My pleasure," Rose said.

Jenny let go of the Doctor. He smiled fondly at Jenny while Rose beckoned to her and led her out of the console room.


	24. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty Three

Rose led Jenny around and showed her where everything was. Jenny was speechless as they walked through the corridors.

"I'm glad you didn't run screaming from us," Rose said after showing her the lavatory.

"Well, even I can't deny that this is proof that your friend isn't normal," Jenny said, pointing to the ceiling. "But you do this all the time now, travel with him?"

"I've been traveling with him for almost two years now and I can't imagine leaving this life. It has its dangerous moments but I've seen so many amazing things that it more than makes up for the horrors. But I'm glad we met you, glad there's a decent person out here on the streets."

"I'm glad you guys are also decent. I don't have very many friends here because most of the people out there are junkies or drunks or want to screw any woman they can get their hands on. I'm glad the Doctor is a decent guy."

"He'd never hurt you, honestly. He's very protective of the people he cares for and he'll defend you to the death against some of these gits. He'd let himself die before you died, trust me. And I'd do the same." 

Jenny hugged her and Rose smiled as she hugged her back.

"Go ahead and have a shower, I can wait," Rose said.

Jenny nodded. Rose pointed out the cupboard where she could find towels and she walked on towards the kitchen when Jenny entered the bathroom and shut the door.

Two hours later, the Doctor woke Rose up and was directed by the TARDIS to Jenny's bedroom. He entered and smiled when he saw her sleeping peacefully in her brass daybed. He could smell strawberry shampoo and smiled tenderly when he noticed that the dirt and grime on her body was gone and her hair was full and lustrous. He put his hand on her shoulder and gently shook her.

"Jenny?" he said.

"Hmm?" Jenny said, opening her eyes halfway.

"Do you still want to go out? You can sleep in here if you want."

"No, I want to go," Jenny said, getting up.

"Did you have a good rest?" the Doctor said.

"Yes, very good. This is a nice room," Jenny said, sitting up on the side of the bed.

The Doctor looked around and smiled when he saw a bookcase filled with books next to the door.

"My ship is alive," the Doctor said.

"Alive? Seriously?"

"Yes and she hears us and can scan our minds. Not in a bad way but when I bring someone in here and ask for a bedroom, she does a scan of your mind and designs a room that you would enjoy. Which is why you have a bookcase with books right there," he said, pointing to it. "My ship tries to make you as comfortable as possible which is my aim as well. I see you have some new clothes and had a shower as well."

"Yeah, thanks, I don't know if you understand this but having a shower again after so long was wonderful, one of life's little pleasures that people take for granted."

The Doctor pulled up a high-backed wooden chair and sat down.

"I'm older than I look. I'm 902 years old," he said to her.

Jenny did a double take.

"Damn, you age really well," she said.

"Well, I don't age, I regenerate, I'll explain more later at the Melting Pot but several years ago I was involved in a large intergalactic war called the Time War. I fought on the front lines and went several days sometimes without bathing so I can understand the wonderful feeling of being clean again after going without for awhile. And my TARDIS gave you some fresh clothing?"

"Yeah, they just appeared in the bathroom after my shower. And everything fits perfectly."

"Like I said, mind scan so she can help you relax and fit in here. My ship has been with me for centuries and she's good to me and everyone who's come in here. So, are you ready to go back out?"

"Yeah, let me get my shoes on. New shoes, I might add."

"Keep them. You keep all of it; you need clothes that didn't belong to someone else for a change."

He patted her knee and stood up with her. He put his arm around her shoulder while they walked out the door.

The Doctor opened the TARDIS door a bit and looked out. Seeing no one around, he nodded to Jenny and Rose and the three of them stepped outside. The Doctor closed the door and they walked over to the bus bay to wait for the trolley.

"Good job the trolley is still running," the Doctor said. "With all this heat, it's nice to have a free ride into Bricktown."

While they waited, they saw a middle age man pass through the parking lot on a bicycle. The bicycle had bags piled up on the back, held in place on a bike rack with bungee cords. Another bag was strapped to the front between the handlebars, he had two plastic sacks on either side of the handlebars and was wearing a backpack on his back.

"Jesus, how can he stay on the bike with all that?" Rose said to the Doctor.

"Hi, Ernie," Jenny said to him.

Ernie waved and slowed the bike. He pedaled up to the bus bay and stopped.

"Hey, are you going to Skyline tonight?" he asked her.

"No, I'm going with friends to eat and see a baseball game," Jenny said. "This is John and Rose, this is Ernie."

The Doctor and Rose said hello and Ernie said hello to them before he turned he got off the bike and deployed the kickstand.

"Got a few things for you," Ernie said, taking the sacks off the handlebars. "I have some food and I found some underwear and socks for you."

"Thanks," Jenny said, taking the sacks from them. "I appreciate you doing this."

"Well, you know I look out for you and give you extras when I have them. How about your friends though, do they need anything?"

The Doctor and Rose politely declined and Ernie nodded.

"Well, I'll be on my way to Skyline, see you later, Jenny."

"Bye, Ernie!"

Ernie got back on his bike and with a wave goodbye, pedaled away.

"That was nice of him," Rose said.

"Yeah, he's one of the decent ones. He kinda adopted me and he's been bringing me food and stuff for several months now," Jenny said.

"She opened the sacks and the Doctor leaned over to see what was in them. Jenny pulled out some white cotton underpants and white socks and tied the sack back. Putting it to the side, she untied the other one and looked in.

"He eats at the shelters and I don't but they usually put extra food out for people in the dining room and he grabs a bunch and shares with me," Jenny told them. "The only bad part about it is he usually gives me things he doesn't want but it's the thought that counts. Still…"

She pulled out a juice box containing milk and made a face.

"I hate this boxed milk and he keeps giving it to me. It's all watery and gross. I'll just leave it here and someone else can take it," she said, setting the box on the empty seat beside her.

She pulled out another box of milk and put it beside the other one. Then she pulled out a box of orange juice.

"The orange juice, I do like," she said to the Doctor. "But…"

She pulled out a snack sized cup of applesauce and the Doctor sniggered when she added it to the discard pile. She pulled out another one and showed it to the Doctor.

"Look, gives me plain and cinnamon," she said before adding it to the pile. "I'm not a fan of applesauce. He did give me some beef jerky though," she said, pulling out a bag. "I like beef jerky and also gave me some peanut butter crackers and cheese and crackers."

She finished her inspection and put the sack with the underwear inside it. She tied the sack up and set it beside her.

"Here, allow me, I'll put it in the TARDIS so you don't have to carry it around all night."

The Doctor took the sack and sprinted across the parking lot to the TARDIS.

"I'm glad Ernie looks out for you," Rose said while they watched him run to the TARDIS.

Yeah, he was with me during the winter when we slept in the parking garage."

"During the cold months, you slept in there? Does it have central heat?" Rose said.

"No, just some windows but it was still freezing in there," Jenny said.

"So, how did you survive then?" Rose said, alarmed.

"I had ten heavy blankets and I put three of them down on the ground and snuggled under the other seven. I was warm and toasty like that. The only time I was cold was when I had to get out from under them to go pee. Ernie had two of those heavy winter sleeping bags. He put one inside the other and slept like that and he stayed warm too."

"God, I've been through some bad situations but nothing like that."

"Well, like I said, I won't go into one of the shelters and even if we'd gone and spent the night in one, they would have given us a mat and a little cotton blanket. I would have been colder in the shelter than I was under my seven blankets."

"So…did you carry the blankets around then?" Rose asked while the Doctor trotted back towards them.

"No, there's a bank that's past the parking garage and it has a wall near the drive through with shrubs in front of it. I'd put the blankets in two bags and stuff them in between the shrubs and the wall so no one could see them. I'd come back at night, get my bags and go to the garage."

"What's this?" the Doctor said, sitting down. "Something about bags and shrubs."

Rose told them what Jenny told her. The Doctor looked at Jenny in amazement when Jenny confirmed what Rose was telling him.

"That settles it," the Doctor said when Rose and Jenny finished telling him about the parking garage. "I've made my decision."

"What decision?" Jenny said.

The Doctor was about to speak when the trolley pulled up. He held up his finger and they got on it. Inside, the Doctor noticed it was filled with people and he told Jenny he'd tell her when they got to the restaurant so they'd have some privacy.


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty Four

While they rode the trolley, Jenny wondered what the Doctor had to say to her. But there were too many people riding with them and she understood that what he had to say had to do with him being an alien and she didn't want him blowing his cover in front of a bunch of strangers. Not to mention, she liked that he wanted to tell her in private, made the thing he wanted to tell her that much more important to her.

They had to go the entire route around Bricktown before coming to the Melting Pot since the restaurant was by the bridge. They got off and the Doctor smiled when he spied a little park area beside the restaurant. The park had some benches and several little water fountains coming up out of the concrete the people could play in to cool themselves off.

"Wheee!" the Doctor said, running in between the fountains.

Jenny gave him an odd look while Rose bent over laughing. The Doctor cupped his hands down in the streams of water and threw it up in the air while he did a silly dance.

"He told me he was 902," Jenny said to Rose.

"Yes but just because he's 902 doesn't mean he always acts like it," Rose said while the Doctor jumped over a little fountain.

Rose shrieked when the Doctor filled his cupped hands with water and ran towards her with it. Jenny laughed when Rose did the same thing and chased after the Doctor. She glanced around and noticed some of the people passing by were giving them odd looks but she didn't care. She enjoyed people who knew how to have a good time without drugs or booze and she was glad she met them.

They stopped playing after a few minutes and the Doctor put his arm around Jenny before they walked to the front door of the restaurant. The interior had dark red wallpaper and carpeting with wood paneling. Two enormous windows were at the front of the restaurant and that's where the hostess led them. They sat down at a round table with four chairs in front of the left window and the hostess gave them their menus and took their drink orders before leaving. The Doctor looked around and noticed that they had a bit of privacy now so he opened his menu and glanced at it while he spoke to Jenny.

"There's been something on my mind for the past several hours and I felt like I needed to make a decision and I feel that I have finally made it. You see, I told you that Rose is my traveling companion. When I first met her, she was working at Henricks in London as a shop girl and she ended up saving my life and I asked her to come with me because I could see so much potential in her and saw that she needed to come away from her humdrum life and be something more that she was. And she has grown into everything she was meant to be. I…"

He sighed angrily when the waitress came back. He asked her for more time and she nodded and went away.

"Anyway, what I'm saying is I don't choose just anyone to travel with me, they have to be unique and you, Jenny, are just that. You have done things that most humans wouldn't have the guts to do," he said while Rose nodded emphatically. "You can sleep in a doorway in the middle of downtown Oklahoma City with no fear whatsoever, you tell drunks to fuck off to their faces, you slept in sub zero temperatures in a bloody parking garage because you refused to let someone else run your life. You are one remarkable woman and I would be honored if you traveled with me and Rose."

Jenny sat in a stunned silence, not really sure she'd heard him right.

"You want me to come with you and Rose when you leave?" she said.

"Yes. I want you to travel the universe with us because you more than have what it takes to survive anything that's thrown at you out there."

"Too right," Rose said. "I asked the Doctor to let you know who we were but I was hoping he'd ask you to come with us because you don't belong here on the streets. You should be with us, traveling the universe and making a difference in people's lives."

"So how about it?" the Doctor said. "And while you answer that, I better order before the waitress comes back."

"Will I have to pay for room and board?" Jenny asked.

Rose chuckled while the Doctor looked up from the menu.

"Well, how would you define "pay", he said to her.

"Money," Jenny said.

"No, however you will have to "pay" for room and board by helping us out when we need your help. We don't just travel around and sit there, we do go out and interact with the people, such as you, and occasionally we stop evildoers from…oh…enacting their nefarious plans, there. So you have to pay in that way, but if you mean monthly rent to me or I'm tossing you out the door into the vortex. No…not yet, anyway, I might have start doing that to Doo Hog since she's taking up space that could be used for other things."

"Fine, I'm gone then if you feel that way," Rose said.

"I never said you could leave, I just said I have to make you pay. You leave when I say you leave!"

Jenny chuckled when Rose stuck her tongue out at that. The waitress came by with their drinks and the Doctor decided to order the Grand Tour off the menu which would consist of a cheese fondue followed by a salad followed by entrée and chocolate fondue for desert. The two women let the Doctor choose the cheese and chocolate fondue choices and Rose chose chicken for the entrée while the Doctor and Jenny chose steak with a baked potato and vegetables for each of them. The waitress took their menus and walked away.

"So…what'd you think?" the Doctor asked Jenny.

"I'd love to, if you'll have me," Jenny said, trying not to cry.

"If you'll have me? Didn't I just get done saying you could come if you want?" the Doctor said while Rose giggled.

"Sorry, I'm just a bit stunned that you want me to do this," Jenny said.

"Well, you more than qualify as someone who can handle their own. After seeing you and hearing your story, I believe you would have no trouble handling monsters and evildoers out there. Besides, Rose is fond of you and I'm sure if I didn't offer, I'd be finding her trainer in my meat and two veg."

"Yup," Rose said. "And it's not all fighting bad guys. We have our little days of rest like the past couple of days and you get to see time and space. It's worth it, trust me."

"And you can come back at any time, you just have to tell me when that'll be," the Doctor said. "Another reason why I asked is because you said your family and friends have basically cut your out of their lives and they obviously don't care that you're out on the streets risking your life so I don't think they'll care if you come with me, right?"

Jenny nodded.

"Then let's make this night a celebration of your becoming a part of this team," the Doctor said while Rose squealed with delight.

They raised their glasses and clinked them together.

"To our newest member, Jenny…what's your last name?"

"Chang," she said.

"To our newest member, Jenny Chang, the newest traveler through time and space," the Doctor said.

"Hear, hear," Rose said as they clinked their glasses again.

"So…the question is, should we keep on with this crazy tour of Oklahoma City or strike out for greener pastures. Jenny, do you have any ideas on where to go?"

"Well, there are a lot of places I'd like to go and…wait…ooooh, I get now why Rose was laughing when I asked if you knew anything about history."

Rose giggled while the Doctor gave her a smug grin and nodded.

"Yes, I know quite a lot about history, all sorts of history. I'm a history encyclopedia. So what eras or planets interest you? Rose and I are always looking for ideas for our next adventure which is why she pointed to a map and found Oklahoma. You see how bored we are, we need fresh blood so they can supply us with fresh insight and ideas. So, any thoughts? What have you always wanted to see? I can go anywhere in time and space!"

"Oh geez, um…" Jenny murmurmed. "Damn, this is putting me on the spot. I suppose Ancient Egypt."

"Any particular thing in Ancient Egyptian history."

"Um…oh, who murdered King Tut…if he was murdered."

"Intriguing," the Doctor said to Rose.

"Very, I never thought of that but yeah, why did King Tut die early?"

"Is that doable, you said you can't interfere in some things like the OKC bombing. Are we allowed to see how King Tut died?"

"Well, if you mean observe, we can always do that. As for saving Tut's life, that is the tricky part that I'll have to check on. But…you know, Rose and I have started out going somewhere that you would think was average and ending up stopping someone who was cooking up something evil. It's amazing how often that happens. So this whole matter of King Tut, it could have been as simple as an accidental fall or it could be something more sinister or even to do with aliens. That…my newest companion is why we keep on traveling."

"Sounds great, I'm up for that."

"Then you have a spot on the TARDIS. Actually, I think the TARDIS might have anticipated that when she scanned your mind because she gave you the bookcase filled with books which implies you'd be there awhile but my TARDIS is just as savvy as I am and I know she was probably thinking that I would ask after seeing how much of a fighter you really are and how adept you are at survival. After centuries of being with me, she can anticipate a lot of my needs and thoughts. So, perhaps we can do that then. Ancient Egypt and the time of King Tut. Might be worth a look and perhaps we could figure out what killed King Tut, eh?"

Jenny beamed at that and Rose squeezed her hand when she saw how happy she was.


	26. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty Five

After eating, they headed outside and walked towards the ballpark. Jenny felt like she was on Cloud 9 while she walked beside her new friends and traveling companions. She had always wanted to travel the world at some point, but time and space? It was still a bit overwhelming to her and she figured she'd have to have time to process it. One thing she knew though, her life would never be the same.

When they reached the ballpark, the Doctor walked over to the box office to see if he could get three seats together. While he did that, Rose and Jenny stood nearby. Rose patted Jenny's back.

"Congrats," she said. "You're gonna make a great companion."

"I can't wait, this is so cool," Jenny said.

"And good job on picking King Tut, I haven't been to Ancient Egypt yet so…"

She gasped when someone threw his arms over her and she saw Suri lean his head up.

"Hey, Rose," he slurred.

"You just don't get that we don't wanna be your friends, do you?" Rose said.

"No, wait, I have something to tell you," Suri said. "I found a place to stay, for all of us."

"Not interested," Jenny said.

"No wait, it's not a shelter, it's a guy's house, his name's Anthony, he drives one of the buses."

The Doctor finished getting the tickets, turned and sighed angrily when he saw Suri with his lover and friend.

"Bugger," he muttered as he stomped over to them. "You just can't keep away from us, can you?" he said to Suri.

"Wait, I'm saying that I found a shelter for all of us," Suri said, holding up his hands. "This guy, Anthony, is running a shelter at his house but it's an actual house, not a mission. We can sleep in and cook whatever we want and do whatever we want. He's a nice guy and when he asked me, I thought I'd come and find you."

"So how did you know we were in Bricktown? Are you following us?" Jenny said.

"No, I went to McDonalds and was walking back and saw you so I thought I'd tell you about this. I can call and have him come get us."

"Except we're going to see the ballgame at the moment," the Doctor said, showing him the tickets.

"Can I come with you?" Suri asked.

"No…"

"I can pay for a ticket if you just show me where you're sitting. I have money," Suri said.

"How'd you get money then?" Rose asked.

"I sold my food stamps, not that it's any of your business," Suri said.

"You did what?" Rose said, frowning.

"Selling your food stamps, if you're not working, you usually get 200 dollars in food stamps. Some people go to people who will give them money if the person will let them use their food stamp card to buy groceries. You get half price so if you sell all 200; the person pays 100 in cash for using the card. It's illegal."

"It sounds stupid too," Rose said. "Why don't you stop drinking and get an actual job and you won't have to sell your food stamps?"

"I can't find one," Suri said.

"Quit the bloody drinking and perhaps you will," Rose said.

"That's not the reason," Suri said, mocking her British accent and female voice, "I can't find a blinkin' bloody job, do you jolly well understand that, mate?"

"Enough!" the Doctor growled at him. "We're not interested. We're going to the ballgame right now and we have no need of going to Anthony's house."

"Tomorrow then?" Suri said. "He's a nice guy and he wants to help the homeless out. There's about ten other people in the house right now but he's willing to make room for more. Come on, you don't have to sleep out on the street anymore."

Rose was about to say something when the Doctor took her and Jenny's hands and pulled them away.

"Wait, we want a private chat," the Doctor said to Suri when he started to come with them.

Suri stopped and waited while the Doctor took his companions out of earshot.

"You're considering his offer?" Rose asked.

"I'm just a bit curious, to be honest. What sort of man would open his house up to more than ten homeless people? Besides, we came here to meet new people and have adventures, right?"

"But we're going somewhere Suri is going?" Jenny said, making a face.

"Yeah, but we can handle that git, I think we should do this just for a laugh," the Doctor said.

"You know what would be a bigger laugh? Shoving Suri into the TARDIS, taking him back to Ancient Egypt and wrapping him up like a mummy," Jenny said.

"Hmm, tempting," the Doctor said while Rose giggled. "I have an idea though. I think we should befriend our little Indian friend and take him up on his offer."

"Why?" Rose said.

"Because I'm tired of him stalking us. He doesn't take the hint when we tell him to piss off, so I think a little reverse psychology will be in order. Besides, I forgot to tell our newest member about my remote control to the TARDIS so we can leave at any time. I want to see if this man will treat the homeless any differently than what a homeless shelter would. Jenny, you said you've been in several."

"Yes and they all sucked. But you think this man might be different?"

"I'm a curious little badger and I think a little investigation is in order. Any man would go and donate to the homeless, money or supplies or things like that, but this man apparently has a big enough heart that he just opens his home up. Might be a man worth meeting. What'd ya say? Let's tell him we can do it tomorrow after we go to this International Festival. Pretend we're all without options and perhaps this is the only way."

"And then when we're done, we call the TARDIS to us?" Rose said.

"Yes and then go to Ancient Egypt as planned? Sound good?"

"But you're going to pretend to be Suri's friend?" Jenny said. "That's a pretty tall order."

"Yes but perhaps we can influence him and get him to change his ways. But if not, we can at least keep him from aggressively following us everywhere we go. So what do you think?"

"What do you think, Jenny? Operation Reform the Drunk then?"

Jenny giggled.

"I don't know if we could do that," Jenny said.

"Yeah, but I love a challenge. So how about it," the Doctor said.

"So, this will be a combination of try to change Suri and scope out the so-called homeless shelter?" Jenny said.

"Yes. Wanna do it for a laugh? Let's really see how the other half lives, eh?"

"I have nothing better to do," Rose said.

"Me neither and I can help you with your research into this guy's house and his methods."

"Brilliant. Follow me then," the Doctor said.

Jenny and Rose shared a gleeful look as the Doctor walked back to Suri.


	27. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty Six

"Suri!"

Suri looked over as the Doctor came up and put his arm around his shoulders.

"We've decided, we'll take you up on that offer tomorrow," the Doctor said. "But first we want to watch the baseball game. So, coming?"

Suri gave him a wary look at the sudden change in the Doctor's personality. He stared at him while he tried to figure out if the friendliness was genuine or not.

"Well, are you coming?" the Doctor asked.

"Um, yeah," Suri muttered.

"Splendid!" the Doctor said, slapping his shoulder.

Suri grunted at the force of the slap and then watched while the Doctor walked over and paid for a ticket for him. When he was done, he beckoned to Suri and Jenny and Rose followed him as they looked for an entrance. Suri hesitated a moment and then followed. They found an open door on the side of the stadium and the Doctor showed the tickets to a middle aged balding man sitting on a chair just inside the gate. He nodded and the Doctor pointed to Suri who had just caught up to them and told the man he was forth one. The man nodded and waved them inside. The Doctor led them over to a souvenir booth. He smiled at Jenny.

"Do you want anything? I'll buy it," he said.

"You sure?" Jenny said.

The Doctor put his arm around her.

"I know you don't like accepting handouts from people but I want to do this for you and you said you had no problem with people doing that, right?"

Jenny nodded.

"Then go ahead and choose what you want, I told you Rose and I are doing this for you as a sort of welcome to the TARDIS type thing. So pick what you want. Me, I want a t-shirt," he said, pointing to t-shirts lining the back of the booth.

"Yeah, me too," Jenny said.

"Go ahead and pick, I need to find a cashpoint…or ATM in Americanese and I'll be right back," the Doctor said.

He ran off while Jenny stood in line and looked at the selection of t-shirts.

"You know what I want?"

Jenny looked over her shoulder at Rose who had come up behind her.

"What?" she said to Rose.

"I want one of those inflatable baseball bat things," Rose said, pointing to a red bat hanging from the top of the booth.

"Really, why?" Jenny said.

"Because I want to hit the Doctor over the head with it and make him cross," Rose said.

Jenny chuckled at that while the Doctor walked up to her.

"Found a cashpoint," he said, getting back into the queue.

"Oh Lord, he made another withdrawl," Rose said.

"Hey, I'm paying for souveniers here, I told Jenny to get whatever she wanted and that takes money. So go ahead and get whatever you want."

"Um…Rose told me something but I'm not sure I should tell you," Jenny said.

"Yes, you should tell me," the Doctor said while Rose giggled. "As a companion, you are required to tell me any scheme that pops into Miss Tyler's noddle. Now what did she say to you?"

"She wants to get one of those inflatable bats so she can bonk you on the head with it," Jenny said, pointing to the bats.

"Oh, did she now?" The Doctor said while Rose gave him a look of innocence. "Ah ha, well, thanks for the warning then."

"Where's Aladdin, by the way?" Jenny said, looking around for him.

"Probably off finding the booze," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "Doctor, I can't believe you asked the wino to join us."

"Oh, I intend to a have a bit of fun with him," the Doctor said airily. "I think it's time we turned the table on the annoying pest. Oh, hang on, it's my turn."

He walked up to the counter and the lady behind it asked him what he wanted.

"Yes, I'd like that t-shirt," he said, pointing to a white t-shirt with the Redhawks logo, a Redhawk's head with a bat in its beak. "And…I'd like one of these inflatable bats please."

He turned and gave Rose a devilish look while Rose eyed him.

"And…Jenny, what do you want?" he asked her.

"I want the same shirt as you but a large size," Jenny said.

"And what size do you need, sir?" the lady asked the Doctor.

"Oh! Um…extra large will do for me, thanks. Anything else, Jenny?"

"Well, I like those glow in the dark necklace things," Jenny said.

"One of the glow in the dark necklaces as well," the Doctor said to the lady.

The lady put his selections on the counter and the Doctor paid for them. Jenny took her shirt and necklace, snapping it so it'd glow and putting it around her necklace. The Doctor took his shirt and grabbed the bat. Jenny laughed when he thwacked Rose on the head with it.

"That's for thinking of attacking me with this bat," he said as he walked away.

"Oh yeah? Two can play at that game," Rose said while she stepped up to the counter.

"So…" the Doctor said walking with Jenny to a concession stand. "Let's get some nibbles and something to drink."

"Oh God, I see Aladdin and he has beer," Jenny said, pointing to the plastic cup filled with beer in Suri's hand while he wandered around.

"No worries, we'll have a bit of fun with him," the Doctor said.

"How?"

"Well, you remember when you told me no one would believe you if you told them I was an alien?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I'm willing to bet Suri won't either."

"You're going to tell him?"

The Doctor shrugged.

"Might as well be truthful with the boy, eh?" he said. "Now, I want to show you one of my toys. This is called psychic paper," he said, pulling it out of his pocket. "Now, I open it up and what do you see?"

"Blank piece of paper," Jenny said, examining it.

"Okay, now the trick of this paper is I can project my thoughts onto it and show someone whatever I want them to see. So…I close it and now I open it again and tell me what you see now?"

Jenny blinked in shock.

"Um, a photo of you smiling. How'd you do that?"

"Alien technology," the Doctor said, putting it back in his pocket. "I can use it to make IDs of all sorts. It helps me get into places I normally wouldn't have access to. I trained Rose how to use it and I'll do the same for you when we have time. And this…" he said, reaching into his pocket again, "is a sonic screwdriver. This…"

He gasped when Rose thwacked him on the back of the head with her inflatable bat.

"Two can play at this game, Doctor," she said while Jenny laughed.

"Jenny, dear, might I borrow your necklace so I can strangle my insolent companion with it?"

He gasped when Rose bonked him on the head again and he grabbed his bat and bonked her back while Jenny laughed.

"You guys are great. I'm glad I met you," she said.

"Yes, the feeling's mutual and…Rose, I swear if you hit me with that thing one more time, you'll be eating it," the Doctor said while Rose giggled.

Rose winked at Jenny and swatted him with the bat. The Doctor gave her an incensed look while she ran away with it.

"Your job, one of them anyway, is to rein that thing in so I can have some peace," he said, pointing to Rose's back while Jenny laughed. "Blimey, I'm sorry I bought mine since that prompted her to buy hers. Ah well, as I was saying…"

The Doctor let Jenny hold the sonic screwdriver while he gave her a brief explanation on its uses. While he talked, he kept glancing at Rose who had her tongue between her teeth while she tried to sneak up on him with the bat. Rose stopped near him when she realized what he was doing and let him finish telling Jenny about the screwdriver. Then she thwacked him again and ran away while the Doctor shook his head.

"Like I said, keep an eye on that one," the Doctor said while Jenny giggled.

She handed the screwdriver back to the Doctor and they walked towards the concession stand. Suri spotted them and ambled over while Rose hurried to catch up to the Doctor and Jenny. Jenny laughed when she bonked the Doctor on the head as she got in the queue.

"You're minutes away from eating that, I swear it," the Doctor said to her.

He eyed Rose when she bonked again and Jenny laughed when he swatted her face with his bat.

"How old are you people?" Suri said while he watched off to the side.

"I'm 902, you?" the Doctor said.

Jenny and Rose bent over laughing at the shocked look on Suri's face.

"Um…I'm 36," he said.

"Ah, well, I believe that you should never get old enough to have fun," the Doctor said.

He gasped when Rose bonked him on the head again.

"I second that," Rose said.

"I will throw you out into the vortex, young lady," the Doctor said, loud enough that Suri would hear him.

"Vortex?" Suri said.

"Yeah, he's a time traveling alien, he didn't tell you that?" Jenny said.

The Doctor jerked his head around and held his laughter in when he saw the odd look on Suri's face.

"A…time traveling alien," Suri said slowly.

"Yeah, I'm the Doctor, hello," the Doctor said, shaking his hand.

"I thought you were John," Suri said.

"Nah, that's just my human alias, I'm really the Doctor, aren't I?" he said to Jenny and Rose.

Suri backed up slightly when Jenny and Rose nodded their heads.

"Whatever, dude," Suri said while the Doctor walked up to the counter with Rose and Jenny. They ordered three Cokes, some nachos and popcorn. As they walked away, Suri followed at a slight distance, still unsure what to make of their sudden friendliness and the Doctor's claim that he was an alien. They walked down steps to a row of seats near the front. They found their seats and sat down. The Doctor made sure to sit by Suri so Rose and Jenny, who were on his right, wouldn't be bothered by him. He sighed when Rose bopped him again with her bat and he swung his bat into her face while Jenny ducked. While they were teasing each other, Suri pulled out his mobile and made a call.

"That's the other thing I've noticed," Jenny said, pointing to the mobile. "All these homeless people apparently can afford mobiles and IPhones. I don't own one because I don't have the money."

"Sell your food stamps and you will have the money," Suri said.

"Fuck no; I'm not wasting my food allowance on stupid shit I don't need at the moment. I don't have anyone I wanna call anyway."

"Well, I'm calling Anthony and telling him where we're at and see if you can come with me," Suri said.

"Whoopie," Jenny muttered to Rose.

Rose grinned at Jenny and wacked the Doctor with her bat. Jenny laughed when the Doctor jerked it out of her hand and used it and his bat while he hit her all over.

"Annoying, isn't it?" the Doctor said while several people sitting behind them laughed. "Makes you want to ask me to stop now?"

"Okay, I'm sorry!" Rose said, hunkering down while he hit her.

The Doctor gave her back her bat while Suri shook his head and muttered about how nutty they all were.


	28. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty Seven

Jenny and Rose ate their food while the Doctor relaxed and Suri spoke to Anthony on the phone. He hung up and looked at them.

"They want to pick us up tonight so we can go to church with them tomorrow. I said I'd call after this gets done."

"Oh crap," Jenny muttered.

"What?" Suri said.

"Here we go, this is one of those shelters where you're required to attend church or else," Jenny said angrily.

"So?" Suri said. "You're a Christian, aren't you?"

"No, I don't consider myself one. I do like a lot of Jesus' teachings but I don't believe he died for our sins and I don't believe in Hell. If there's a Hell, this is Hell," she said, pointing to the floor.

"The baseball stadium?" the Doctor said, frowning. "Oh, oh! You mean Earth, sorry."

He grunted when Rose smacked him on the head with the bat.

"The Bible says there's a Hell," Suri said.

"So? The Bible was written by men. I don't believe everything in a book just because it's supposedly the word of God. I study and read and decide for myself what I believe."

"Besides," the Doctor said. "I killed the Devil so Hell is ownerless now."

"What?" Suri said while Rose laughed.

"He killed the Devil?" Jenny muttered to Rose.

Rose chuckled and leaned into her ear, whispering to her while she explained what he meant.

"Seriously?" Jenny said to the Doctor when she finished her explanation. "You really killed Satan?"

"Well, he claimed to be Satan at any rate. Don't know if he was the real deal or not but I killed him," the Doctor said, ignoring Suri's confused look.

"So, are you a Christian?" Suri asked the Doctor.

"No, I'm a member of the Orthodics."

"The what?" Suri said.

"Orthodics, it's a Venusian sect that says that Ortho once ruled Venus but he was killed by rival factions and someday he will return and Venus will take its rightful place in the universe."

Jenny and Donna laughed when Suri stared at him while he leaned away.

"And I do believe in God but I don't go to church," Rose said. "Believe I told you that already."

"And I don't believe that shelters should require people to go to their churches. That's a violation of the First Amendment, especially since most of them make you go or you get kicked out which means you have to choose between your faith or a bed," Jenny said. "That's wrong."

"It's just a church, all you have to do is go and sit and listen to a sermon. They're not asking you to get up and preach to everyone," Suri said with a shrug.

"It's the principle of the thing," Jenny said. "They're trying to get butts in their church and it's violating a person's right to believe…oh fuck it, I'm not arguing with you over this!" she said, waving her hand dismissively. "I'd rather talk to Rose and the Doctor anyway. Actually, I've been thinking, Doctor."

"Yes?" he said while Suri listened.

"Do you like solving mysteries?" Jenny asked him.

"Ah, yes, love, love, LOVE solving mysteries. Why?"

"Well, if you two are looking for ideas, I was also thinking about finding out who Jack the Ripper really was. Have you done that before?"

The Doctor stared at her silently for a moment and then a huge grin spread over his face.

"Blimey, you just jump in with both feet, dontcha?" he said while Rose giggled. "I give you a choice of where to go and instead of saying, oh, let's go to a nice beach somewhere, you instantly wanna go find out who killed King Tut and now Jack the Ripper. You love danger, don't you?"

"Hey, might as well make it interesting if I'm gonna do something," Jenny said, shrugging.

"Rose, this one's a keeper!" the Doctor said, pointing to Jenny.

"I'll say!" Rose said. "We're gonna be on our toes with her making the choices."

"I agree. Why, who knows? She might want us to go to Gettysburg during the battle and make us land right in the middle of the battle so she can see everything up close. That's what I love though, a companion who isn't afraid of danger."

"What are you talking about?" Suri asked.

"I'm a time traveler. I travel through time and space and I take friends along to join in and help me. I like Jenny and I asked her to come with me and I asked her to pick where she wanted to go and she wants to go back to Ancient Egypt and try to solve King Tut's death. And now she has the idea about Jack the Ripper which is also brilliant. Would you like to come with us to Ancient Egypt?"

Suri gave him another odd look while Rose and Jenny shared a gleeful look.

"You want me to come with you to Ancient Egypt?" Suri said.

"Yes. Course there are a few rules. I don't allow alcohol on my spaceship and I require you be sober at all times and you have to follow my lead and do what I say."

"And I recommend not beating the shit out of King Tut or I'm sure you'll be thrown to the crocodiles," Jenny said.

"Shut up," Suri said.

"And I require that you be respectful of the other travelers," the Doctor said. "What Jenny said makes sense since apparently you have a temper and I won't have you go around time and space threatening to kick people's arses."

"I don't."

Jenny snorted at that.

"And I don't drink that much either," Suri said.

"Oh, what's that in your hand?" Jenny said, pointing to the beer in his hand.

"This is the first drink I've had all day and beer isn't as bad as vodka or whiskey."

"Mate, you've been drinking constantly. You can tell everyone you're not drunk but I've been drunk and I've been around drunk friends and you are pissed," Rose said. "And if you don't watch it, you're gonna get cirrhosis of the liver and die."

"I already have that," Suri said.

They stared at him silently for a moment.

"You claim not to be an alcoholic yet you have cirrhosis of the liver which comes from heavy drinking," Jenny said.

For once Suri didn't have a comeback for that.

"Okay, I do drink heavily sometimes but I'm not drunk now."

Jenny sighed and looked at Rose who was rolling her eyes.

"So, you basically ruined your life and you're gonna die young because you wanted to drink your problems away," Jenny said.

"I don't hide from my problems. What I do is none of your fucking business!"

"Oi, you don't talk to her like that!" the Doctor said angrily.

"So is she your second girlfriend now?" Suri said. "Do aliens have multiple partners?"

"Yes and we lay eggs in people's stomachs," the Doctor said.

"No need to be an asshole," Suri muttered.

"Aren't you glad you're leaving this git behind when we go?" Rose muttered to Jenny.

"Hell, yes," Jenny muttered back.

They relaxed and settled back in their seats when the ballgame finally started.


	29. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty Eight

After the game, they left the stadium and the Doctor checked his watch. By this time, it was nearing 10:30 so they walked over to the bus shelter in the hopes that the trolley would show up. Suri had two beers and he was swaying and staggering behind the others. They walked up, sat down and the Doctor once again sat beside Suri.

"So, you're going to make this phone call then?" the Doctor asked Suri.

"Do you want me to?" Suri asked.

"Well, we would like to get our things before we go over there," the Doctor said. "Do you even know this Anthony?"

"I've seen him drive the bus before. I know that if you stay at his shelter, you get to ride the buses he drives for free."

"How far is this house?" Rose asked.

"Um, over near the highway somewhere," Suri said, waving his hand around.

"Um…Aladdin, there's a bunch of highways around here, that doesn't tell us anything," Jenny said.

"It's over by Britton Road," Suri said.

"Where's that?" Rose said.

"Not sure, but I don't think it's nearby," Jenny said. "But if we have to go to their church tomorrow, we'll probably miss the international festival."

"No worries, I can take the TARDIS and go back in time to tomorrow and we can still see it," the Doctor said.

Jenny and Rose glanced at him and then leaned up to look at Suri. They giggled at the confused look on his face.

"You guys are weird," he said.

"Doctor," Rose said, tugging his sleeve, "if we're getting our things and Suri is with us…"

"What?" Suri said when Rose gave the Doctor a pointed look and the Doctor's eyebrows raised in comprehension.

"Yeah, are you sure you want Suri to see…you know…" Jenny said.

"What?" Suri said, annoyed.

The Doctor was about to say something when the trolley pulled up. They got on and Suri sighed as he trudged onto the trolley after them. He slumped down on the front bench while the other three went to the back and began to talk quietly amongst themselves.

"Doctor, are you sure you want him to see the TARDIS?" Jenny said softly.

"Well, you know, if he did tell I'm betting no one would believe him," Rose said softly. "Especially considering the amount of booze he drinks."

The Doctor glanced at Suri who was now looking out the window and ignoring them.

"Apart from knocking him out and leaving him on a bench, I suppose we'll have to show him the TARDIS," the Doctor muttered to them. "He's following us and if we're supposed to go to this house with him, he won't go away and even if he sits down across from the TARDIS, he'll see us go inside it. I can't move it without him noticing so perhaps we'll have to let him see it."

"Wonder what he'll say about it?" Rose muttered.

"Yeah, you think he'll wanna come with us?" Jenny said.

"Perhaps, but Rose, you remember what happened the last time we took along someone before we made sure he was trustworthy."

"Why, what happened?" Jenny said when she noticed Rose sigh and nod at that.

"We took along this guy that I felt sorry for because we were destroying this underground base and he had nowhere to go, so I convinced the Doctor to take him on the TARDIS and he betrayed us and nearly got us killed at the next spot we landed," Rose said.

"Well, if you're concerned about Suri doing that, I wouldn't let him see the TARDIS then," Jenny said.

"There is a way, I can render him unconscious long enough to let us go into the TARDIS and get our things," the Doctor said.

"How?" Jenny asked.

"I know how to use pressure points to my advantage. I can pinch a nerve that would render him unconscious and I have a couple of things on the TARDIS that can wake him back up. We can knock him out and leave him sitting where we normally sit to get on this trolley. We can get what we need and come back out and wake him up. He won't see the TARDIS."

Jenny glanced at Suri and noticed he had nodded off.

"Might not have to do that, look at him," Jenny said, pointing to Suri.

"Yes, but he'll have to wake up to get off the trolley and I doubt he'll go right back to sleep. I might have to help him along," the Doctor said. "As drunk as he is, no one will suspect he's been knocked out."

"Doctor, are you sure you want to do this though?" Jenny asked. "I mean, go to this shelter when you have your TARDIS. We could just spend the night in there."

"Yes, but…I try not to do that if I can help it whenever I go somewhere because I spend enough time in it as it is and the purpose of traveling is for me to go out and experience things. I…would liken it to someone getting a chance to go to…say, London from here…like if you were to go to London and all you did was stay in your hotel room except to go out and occasionally eat at McDonalds. Where's the fun in that? See what I mean?"

Jenny nodded.

"Churches aren't high on my list of things I really wanna do but I've been through worse situations than sitting in a pew for an hour listening to some vicar preach a sermon. If we hadn't made the decision last night to spend the night outside the TARDIS and sleep under the stars, we never would have met you and Rose and I would have missed the pleasure of your company as we go to our next destination. Who knows, we might find someone else at this shelter that is just as friendly as you are and that opportunity alone is worth finding out about this man and spending a night with him. I have my remote control and we can always call the TARDIS to us when we get bored and restless and want to leave so how about it, wanna try this place and see what happens?"

Jenny nodded.

"That's the spirit! And it looks like we're nearing our stop now so…"

The Doctor pulled the cord to signal the driver to stop.

"Actually, the international festival doesn't start till 1 in the afternoon so maybe we can go to this church and go to it later," Jenny said as they got up. "Usually if they start early in the morning, we'll have plenty of time to go."

"Good thinking. And if this Anthony doesn't have a way back for us since the buses don't run on Sunday, I can use the TARDIS. It'll work out, you'll see. Suri…"

The Doctor stopped beside Suri and was shaking him.

"Huh?" Suri said, opening his eyes a crack.

"We're here," the Doctor said. "It's time to go."

"Okay," Suri mumbled as he slowly got up.

The Doctor, Rose and Jenny got off the trolley but Suri slowly walked down the steps and by the time he was off, the Doctor, Rose and Jenny were over by the chairs. Suri shuffled over to the chairs, slumped down and mumbled something about calling Anthony in a moment before he drifted off to sleep again. The Doctor leaned over, wrinkling his nose at the strong smell of alcohol on his breath. He studied him and satisfied he was asleep, hurried to the TARDIS while Rose and Jenny ran behind him. He quickly unlocked the TARDIS and they went inside. The Doctor shut the door and they picked up their backpacks. The Doctor and Rose laid their bats down on the jump seat and the Doctor and Jenny put their t-shirts inside their backpacks. Jenny got her sack of food and underwear and put it inside and then zipped it up. Once they were ready, they followed the Doctor down the ramp. He opened the door and stuck his head out. He beckoned to Jenny and Rose and they followed him outside. The Doctor shut the door and they carried their backpacks over to the bus bay. The Doctor shook Suri and when he finally woke up; the Doctor asked him if he was going to call Anthony. Suri muttered he would and everyone else sat down while he fished in his pocket for his mobile and pulled it out.


	30. Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty Nine

"Ugh!" Jenny said when their ride finally showed up.

It was an old battered white van that had been previously used by another church since they would see where lettering had been taken off the fronts and sides. They could also see the faint outline of Precious Moments Angels by the lettering. It was being driven by a bulky Hispanic man and a shorter Hispanic woman sat in the passenger seat. The man stopped the van and got out. He was wearing a wife beater t-shirt and blue jeans and his big bulky muscles were a contrast to his thin little legs. He had shaved his head and had a small goatee on his round face. The woman had glasses with pink frames, long brown hair and one tooth missing. She leaned out of the passenger side window while the man moved around to her side.

"Hello, are you here for Brother Anthony?" the man said with a thick Spanish accent.

Everyone nodded.

"I'm Alex, this is my girlfriend, Stephanie," he said. "Climb in."

He slid open the side door and the Doctor groaned.

"Why do I have a feeling this will be another teeth rattling ride?" he said.

Jenny and Rose got in first and went to the back of the four seat van. The Doctor followed and they giggled when he had to nearly bend in half to walk to the back.

"Sucks being big and gangly, huh?" Jenny said as the Doctor flopped down in the seat in front of them.

"Not really, I can see over high fences, little one," he said, poking the top of Jenny's head.

Suri flopped down in the seat in front of him, stretched out on it and went to sleep. The Doctor rolled his eyes at that while Alex closed the door and walked back around to the driver's side. He got in, shut the door and drove away.

It took about thirty minutes driving down the interstate till they reached Britton Road. They got off the interstate and went down to the highway. Alex turned right and went about a half mile to a housing development. Alex drove down one block and turned into a cement driveway that also had a Honda Civic, SUV and another van sitting in it. The house was brick, two story with a two car garage. It had a fenced in back yard and was nestled in between houses of different shapes and sizes, all of them looking brand new or close to it.

"He started a homeless shelter here?" Jenny said, looking at the house. "And the neighbors don't care? Seems a bit upscale to me."

"Maybe they're very tolerant neighbors," the Doctor said. "Oh blimey, here we go, back out the door."

Jenny and Rose giggled as he got up, hunched over, and made his way to the sliding door. Jenny and Rose followed him. Rose shook Suri when she got to him.

"Huh?" Suri said.

"We're at this shelter of yours, get up," she said before she went on.

They got out and walked past the van to a little concrete walkway that led up to a small porch in front of the door. There was a storm door in front of the actual door and there were two long windows on either side of it. Jenny looked at her friends when she pointed out that the bottom of one of the long windows had been busted out.

"This is a nice house in a nice neighborhood, I'm willing to bet Anthony didn't do this," she said to them.

Alex came up, opened both doors and told them to come inside. He and Stephanie followed and the Doctor, Rose and Jenny walked down a short hallway to a large living room. Right by the living room was the kitchen and a 300 pound man was cooking something while a black man sat at a wooden kitchen table. Both of them looked up when everyone entered the room.

"These are new people," Alex said to them. "This is Jessie," he said, pointing to the fat man "And this is Derek," he said, pointing to the black man.

"Welcome," Jessie said. "We're cooking supper and you're welcome to eat with us."

"Supper, it's nearly 11:30 at night," the Doctor said, glancing at a digital clock on the wall.

"Some of us eat late here," Derek said. "I work at Sonic and I get home late."

They heard a door slam and the Doctor, Rose and Jenny turned to see Suri shuffling into the house, his eyes barely open. Alex told the three of them to have a seat and they looked around at two recliner sofas, a long one and a short one. They sat down on the long one side by side while Suri shuffled into the room and flopped down on the short one. There were two closed doors, one by the dining room table and one at the end of the long sofa. Behind them was stairs that led up and another short hallway that went past it. Off to their right was a sliding glass door that led into the back yard and they could see a large trampoline in the center of the yard. While they sat there, the door beside the kitchen table opened and they could see a bedroom with several black people of differing ages sitting on a large bed. A man came out and smiled at them. He was tall and slightly muscular with a shaved head. Everyone on the bed looked in at them while the man walked over to them.

"I'm Brother Anthony," he said to them. "Welcome. What's your names?"

"I'm Rose, this is Jenny and John and that's Suri over there."

"Welcome Sister Rose, Sister Jenny, Brother John and Brother Suri," he said. "I'm the one who runs this shelter and you're more than welcome to stay here for as long as you like."

"While he was talking, a three year old boy with short curly black hair slipped off the bed and toddled out the door. A young woman wearing a black shirt and ankle length black skirt came out after him.

"Steel, no, come back inside," she said, taking the toddler's hand.

"This is my wife, Sister Anne and my son, Steel," Anthony said as Anne scooped her child up in her arms. "And…come out here, everyone!"

Several teenagers and preteens came out into the living room. All of the women were wearing long skirts or dresses as they assembled around Anthony.

"These are my children," Anthony said, pointing to each of them in turn, "This is Anthony Junior, Antonio, Adrian, Keisha, Ayesha and Myesha. Everyone this is Sister Rose, Sister Jenny, Brother John and Brother Suri."

Everyone said hello and everyone except Suri returned the greetings. Suri was snoring loudly, passed out on the sofa. Anthony called for everyone in the house to come into the living room and several more people came from the room at the end of the hallway and down the stairs.

"These are the other people living here," Anthony said. "This is Brother Terrance," he said, pointing to a young black man who was dressed in tight blue jeans and hot pink t-shirt.

"Hello," Terrance said in a high-pitched girly voice.

"This is Sister Nicole," Anthony said, pointing to a middle aged black woman with a haggard face.

Nicole waved shyly.

"This is Brother Eric," he said, pointing to a Hispanic man in his twenties who was standing by a Caucasian woman wearing blue scrubs and two small children. "And this is his wife, Sister Monica and their children, Alicia and Angel."

They all waved and the Doctor, Rose and Jenny said hello.

He pointed to a plump Hispanic woman with a young son.

"This is Brother Alex's wife, Sister Maria and their son, Tony," he said. "As you can see, we're a bit full right now and all the rooms are taken so you'll have to sleep on the sofa here and a couple of you might be able to sleep on the floor, either in here or the front room," he said, pointing back down the hallway to the front door and the room that was just off to the side of it.

Jenny and Rose stared at him in shock.

"You're bringing in people and you don't have room for them," Rose said.

"Well, my church is building a proper homeless shelter but for the moment we're taking in anyone who needs a place to stay. The sofas do recline out so you can stretch out on them. But here we only have a few rules. We're not like other shelters where you have to get out in the morning. You can stay here all day if you want and sleep for as long as you like. The kitchen has food that you can cook and you are free to just relax and recover from being out on the streets. The rules I do have are that you must attend church both on Sunday and Wednesday with me and my family. There will be no swearing and no secular music or TV or anything that doesn't glorify God will be allowed in this house. I am in charge and when I'm not here, Sister Anne will be in charge and you must follow our rules. We usually have a bible study each night and in fact, we're going to have one now in a few minutes.

"Um, it's nearly midnight," Jenny said.

"I know but some people have jobs here so we tend to do things late in the evening and I want everyone to attend the bible studies and group meetings when we have them. If you do need a ride, I drive bus 18 until 11 a.m. and then I drive bus 7 until 5:30. You are welcome to ride those buses for free. However, neither bus comes by here. You can catch bus 18 by walking down the road here, past the overpass to a side road that goes beside the interstate, walk up to the next overpass and there's a bench right beside the McDonalds on the turn off. Bus 7 doesn't near here at all but if you catch the last bus at 5:30, you can ride with me to the bus yard and I'll take you back here in my car. However, I would love for you to stay here for at least 30 days and not go anywhere since you need to rest from being in the outside world."

"Um…my friends and I want to go to the library tomorrow afternoon to see an international festival thing," Jenny said.

"That's not allowed, you have to attend church, Sister Jenny," Anthony said.

"Yeah, this starts at 1 p.m., so we can go to church and then go to it," Jenny said.

"No, you have to attend church service in the morning and in the evening so I don't allow anyone to go anywhere on Sunday unless it's absolutely essential," Anthony said.

Jenny and Rose looked at each other while Terrance snickered.

"Also, I don't allow fighting in here and no bringing in of any alcohol or drugs. And I won't allow you to come in here drunk or high," Anthony said.

"Well, there's strike one for Aladdin then," Jenny said, pointing to him. "He's drunk."

"Yes, I figured that which is why I want you to stay here and not go anywhere for 30 days so you can keep away from temptations like that."

"Yes, but none of us do that," the Doctor said. "We don't drink to the point of drunkeness and we don't do drugs."

"Yes, but you still need to rest and get deprogrammed from the outside world," Anthony said. "The outside world is full of temptations and in here you can get away from that and focus on helping yourself and finding God."

"So, when you say deprogram from drugs and alcohol," Rose said. "You mean send people like Suri to rehab to get clean?"

"No, we ask that they stay in here away from alcohol and drugs and dry out. We don't use rehab, we rely on the power of God in here."

"Um, that's nice but really, you should be sending these people to some sort of rehab," Rose said.

"No, it's not needed," Anthony said.

"God is powerful and if you ask God to come into your heart, he'll cleanse you of all iniquity," Anne said. "He has the power to set you free from Satan and his temptations."

"But I killed Satan," the Doctor muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Anthony said while Rose and Jenny tried not to laugh.

"Nothing, just thinking to myself," the Doctor said.

"Anyway, we're going to have bible study in a few minutes and then you can rest for the night. But we have to be up by 6:30 in the morning to go to church so just be aware of that."

"So, why won't you let us sleep then, you schmuck?" Jenny muttered under his breath as Anthony and his family turned and went back into the bedroom.

When they shut the door, everyone dispersed except for Jessie, Derek and Terrance. The Doctor, Rose and Jenny sat on the sofa while Suri snored away.

"So, that's it for the international festival then," Jenny said softly to her friends.

The Doctor leaned over and Jenny and Rose leaned in close.

"I have a plan about that, I'll tell you later when we're alone," he whispered to them.

They nodded. The Doctor noticed that Rose and Jenny were looking past him and he looked over his shoulder. Terrance had come up to him and was standing over him, staring at him with a huge grin on his face.

"Yes?" the Doctor said.

He was taken aback when Terrance leaned down into his face and gazed at him.

"Ooo-eee, you are one sexy bitch, honey," he said to him. "Are you gay?"

"Um…no," the Doctor said.

"Shit, ah well, you're still sexy."

Rose and Jenny looked at one another when Terrance pinched his cheek and kissed the air.

"Mmm, what I wouldn't give to hump you," he said while Rose and Jenny stared at him in shock. "Oh well, can't have everything in the world. But maybe you'll change your mind, honey."

The three of them watched while Terrance skipped away back down the hallway to the back room.

"Okay, can you say flaming?" Jenny said.

"Don't mind him, he does that to everyone," Jessie said from the kitchen.

"By the way," Terrance said, skipping back into the room with his IPod in his hand. "What'd you say youre name was, cutie?"

"Who me?" the Doctor said, pointing to himself.

"Well, you're the only cutie in the bunch, honey," Terrance said, undressing him with his eyes.

"Um, I'm John."

"Janetta?"

"No, John," the Doctor said.

"I know but I give all the men here female names. I'll call you Janetta and that over there is Jessica and Daquesha and Alex is Alexa and Eric is Erica and Anthony Junior is Antonina and Adrian is Adrienne and Antonio is Antonia and him…what was his name?" he said, pointing to Suri.

"Suri," the Doctor said.

"Um, ew, stupid name, he's drunk anyway, I don't want him. But you, you're a cutie, Janetta. Hope to be seeing more of you."

He paused and looked at Rose for a moment and then leaned in.

"Hey, Bleach Blonde Bimbo, your roots are showing. Ta!"

The Doctor glared at him as he skipped out of the room. Rose was rendered speechless and Jenny groaned.

"Okay, now do you guys see why I'd rather sleep on the streets?" she said.


	31. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

After ten minutes, Derek walked out of the room and headed upstairs and Jessie walked to the back room. The smell of beef stew hung in the air while the Doctor checked to see if Suri was still asleep before leaning in to his friends.

"After the first church service, we'll go around the back of the church and I'll call my TARDIS to me. We can go to the international festival and have some fun and come back a few seconds after we left, they'll never know we've gone," the Doctor said. "Besides, it might be safer having the TARDIS in the back of the church now that we're here."

"What about your admirer?" Rose asked.

"What about him? He can drool all he likes. I didn't turn gay for Jack and I won't turn gay for him so he'll just have to look at me from afar. In fact, I'm glad Jack isn't here right now because what the two of them could do would give a heart attack to these church people."

"Jenny, is there a make your own t-shirt shop in Oklahoma City?" Rose asked her friend.

"Um, not sure, why?"

"Because I want to have a t-shirt made for the Doctor that says I'm glad Jack isn't here right now since he's said that about ten times now," Rose said, pointing to the Doctor.

"Who is he?" Jenny said.

"He's a friend of ours, used to travel with us," Rose said. "He does like men but he's nothing like Terrance."

"No, he's calmer for a start and more restrained and to be frank, Jack doesn't just like men. Um…Jack…likes about anything that's living," the Doctor said. "But I doubt even he could put up with Terrance. I have a feeling he goes for more mature men."

They heard loud muffled music and Terrance strolled back in, listening to his IPod. The Doctor grunted when he slammed onto the sofa beside him and gave him a lustful look.

"Hello, sweetheart," Terrance said, running his finger down the Doctor's cheek.

"Leave him alone," Jenny said.

"Shut up, Asian ho, don't talk to me."

"Excuse me?" Rose said angrily while Jenny stared at him in shock.

"And don't talk to me either. I don't like women who dye their hair; they're all a bunch of sleezy skanks."

"Those are my friends and you will be respectful to them!" the Doctor said angrily.

"Sorry, sweetie, I just don't like women. Most of them are bitches. Girls, bomp bomp, rule the world, bomp, bomp, bomp."

Rose and Jenny gasped when Terrance suddenly flung himself up, flung himself down on the Doctor's leg and pretended to hump it.

"Stop it, leave him alone!" Rose yelled, getting up.

"Ooo, the little blonde bitch is talking to me?" Terrance said, getting up.

Rose looked into his eyes and saw madness there and she knew she had to be cautious.

"Leave him alone, he doesn't like you," Rose said.

"This doesn't concern you, you little limey ho!"

"Quit insulting everyone as well, Anthony said that we're supposed to be respectful of everyone in here, ya git!" Rose said.

"You wanna fight me, bitch? Huh? You wanna fight?" Terrance said, getting shrill.

He stomped into the kitchen and everyone gasped when he grabbed a large butcher knife from the drawer near the sink and came back towards her. The Doctor and Jenny leapt up.

"If you come anywhere near here with that, you will live to regret it!" the Doctor snarled, pointing to the knife.

"ANTHONY, GET IN HERE AND RESTRAIN THE NUTCASE!" Jenny screamed.

"You talking to me, bitch?" Terrance said, moving towards her with the knife. "I will cut you, bitch!"

By now, everyone was coming into the living room.

"Alright, leave them alone!" Alex said, walking over to him as Anthony opened the bedroom door.

Terrance tensed his muscles and suddenly he lunged at Alex. Everyone got out of the way, except for Suri who was still asleep. But Suri was awakened when the two struggling men slammed into the sofa next to him. The Doctor, Rose and Jenny backed up to the patio door while Alex managed to get the knife away from Terrance and throw it across the room. The Doctor grabbed it while Alex got Terrance in a headlock.

"QUIT! LET ME GO!" Terrance shrieked.

"God, they need to call the cops on this idiot," Jenny said, shaking her head.

Terrance managed to wriggle out of Alex's headlock and lunged for the knife in the Doctor's hand. The Doctor dropped the knife behind him and Rose picked it up while the Doctor punched Terrance hard in the face. The force of the blow made Terrance reel back and Alex tried to get him back in the headlock but Terrance screamed at him to get away and ran to the front room while Anthony followed him.

"He needs to go," Alex said, shaking his head. "He keeps getting into fights like this, the man is nuts."

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Terrance screamed from the front room.

Jessie took the knife from Rose and everyone walked into the kitchen except for the Doctor, Rose, Jenny and Suri. Suri fell back to sleep but Terrance kept on screaming, "NO, LEAVE ME ALOOONE! NO!"

"What the hell are they doing in there?" Rose said.

"Satan! I bind you! Leave this man now!" they heard Anthony say.

The rest of Anthony's family went into the front room and they heard them begin to clap, yell Jesus's name and speak in tongues while Terrance continued to yell at them to leave him alone. The Doctor looked around and when none of the other residents were looking, he went down the hallway and peeked into the front room. He looked for thirty seconds and then walked back to Rose and Jenny who were now sitting on the sofa.

"What's happening in there?"

"Um…I think…that Anthony is performing an exorcism."

"What?" Jenny said. "Seriously?"

"Well," the Doctor said, sitting down beside them. "Terrance is on the floor on his stomach while Anthony is sitting on his back commanding the devil to leave him. I'd say that's an exorcism."

"Leave, Satan, in the name of Jesus!" they heard Anthony say.

"NOOOO, LEAVE ME ALOOONE!" Terrance screamed.

"This is a fascinating little house," the Doctor said. "Not here more than a half hour and already I've been propositioned by a demon possessed man. See, Jenny, time travel can be fun."

"If you say so, I think I've had enough of this house," Jenny said.

"Yeah, I have a feeling I'd rather take my chances in Ancient Egypt than with these nutters," Rose said. "Why don't we just go and leave this all behind?"

"Are you sure?" the Doctor said. "We get to listen to an exorcism!"

"NOOOO, GET OFF MEEEEE!"

"You want to get stabbed or me to get stabbed?" Rose said.

"Serves you right if he does. That'll learn ya to bop me in the noddle with your bat," the Doctor said.

"Doctor, please, I've had my fill of this place after ten seconds," Jenny said. "Let's just go."

The Doctor stared at them, flicking his foot lazily.

"Doctor," Rose said when he didn't answer them.

"Just watching you squirm while I sit here, I enjoy watching you squirm and beg me to leave here," he said.

"Can we?" Rose said.

"Oooh, I suppose, you're right, I don't want to fend off the advances of a half crazed randy homosexual devil possessed chap. Even though I killed Satan so it must be a lesser devil that's possessing him. Let's go!"

"Thank God!" Jenny said as they grabbed their gear and stood up.

They headed towards the front door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jessie called.

"We're going out for a very, very long walk, have fun!" the Doctor said, waving.

They passed by the entrance to the front room and looked inside. Terrance was on the floor while Anthony sat on him yelling for Jesus to take the devil out of him. The others stopped clapping and speaking in tongues when the Doctor waved at them.

"Toodles," the Doctor said.

"Wait!" Anthony said.

But the Doctor opened the door and he, Rose and Jenny ran out the door and into the street. They ran out of the housing development to the field across the street. They looked to see if anyone was following them before the Doctor reached into his pocket for his TARDIS remote control. He paused a moment with his finger on the button.

"Well, turn it on, we wanna go," Rose said.

"But…exorcism, don't you wanna see it?"

"NO!" Rose and Jenny yelled.

"Oh okay, I wanted to see if a devil really jumped out of him. But if you insist," the Doctor said, pressing the button on the remote control.

Nothing happened for a few seconds and then suddenly the TARDIS materialized behind them.

"In, in, in!" Jenny said when it finished materializing.

"My, my, you're in a rush, aren't you?"

"Just get inside before I slap you silly," Rose said.

"Fair enough," the Doctor said.

He grinned as he slowly turned the key in the lock prompting another outburst of "Get on with it!" from Rose. The Doctor opened the door and stepped aside while Jenny and Rose raced inside. The Doctor went inside and shut the door behind them.

"So…Ancient Egypt then?" he said to them. "You sure you don't wanna see any more of Oklahoma?"

"No, I'm through with Oklahoma, let's just go," Rose said.

"Alrighty then! I will set the coordinates for Ancient Egypt so our newest member can get her feet wet," he said to them as he walked to the console.

He grinned at his companions as he began to do his manic dance around the console.

"Goodbye, Oklahoma! Hello, Egypt!" he said while Jenny and Rose squealed with delight.

THE END.


End file.
